Tournament
by Laimelde
Summary: The weevils are behaving strangely and Owen can't be everywhere all the time. Tosh struggles when the rift activity monitor starts failing inexplicably. The team is worn down and struggles to cope. Set post-TW Something Borrowed and post TWN Skypoint.
1. Chapter 1

**Authors Note: This is my 2010 NaNoWriMo story -my first attempt at NaNo and I succeeded! Since the story is already complete and will only require light editing before each chapter is posted, I'll be updating daily.**

**This is set after TW: Something Borrowed, (and after the TW novel Skypoint if you read those). Possible spoilers/references for anything in S1 and S2 up to that point. ****I've written this as though it were an official Torchwood novel, so Jack & Ianto's relationship is out in the open at this point in the story, however there are no explicit sex scenes.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Torchwood characters or settings and won't be making any money from this.**

**Hope you enjoy!**

* * *

Owen Harper slowed down as he walked silently through the park, eyes alert for any sign of movement. He was looking for a weevil, a grotesque humanoid creature from who-knew-where in the universe.

In the old days, a 'weevil hunt' had meant two or three of the team would head out to find a single weevil. They would take weevil spray and tranquilliser guns, only using their actual bullets as back up. If it was a new weevil, tag it and fit it with a boiler suit so it's alien nature was less apparent to a casual glance. Then the violent ones would be taken back to the hub, and the not-so-violent ones released into the nearest sewer entrance.

That was then. This was now._ Now_, Owen grumbled to himself, it was just him. Every bloody time. Every time a weevil alert sounded, the others just looked at him expectantly. And there was no tranquilliser guns, no spray, just the dead man himself. Because Owen _was _dead. He'd died a few months ago, a bullet to the heart, and then Jack had brought him back. But not to life, oh no -to a sort of un-death. Which was just great. Came with all sorts of perks, that did. He couldn't eat, he couldn't drink, he couldn't sleep, and with no blood circulating through his body, he couldn't get it up. So no sex either. Which ruled out all his favourite pastimes: eating, getting drunk, getting laid. Sleeping off the morning after. Sometimes he didn't think there was any point to existing anymore.

There had been some interesting side-effects though. The most unexpected one had been the weevils. Before he'd died, he'd been studying them and had discovered they had low-level telepathic abilities. Apparently that also allowed them to sense death, because now the weevils all got down and grovelled before him whenever he was nearby. He was king of the weevils. Which was how he'd ended up on permanent weevil duty. He sighed and hit the comms device in his ear.

"Ianto, I can't see it anywhere. Got any hints?"

"_About 50 metres straight ahead_."

"Thanks mate." He strode forward with a bit more purpose, peering ahead into the shadows of the trees. Movement caught his eye, and he slowed to approach the alien. He watched as it got down on its knees facing him. He gave it a moment -they never seemed to want to get up again straight away -then started talking to it.

"Come on, up you get, let's go back home eh? I'm sure there's some nice, er, sewerage, waiting for you." Christ, was this what he'd been reduced to? Murmuring sweet nothings to weevils at eleven on a Saturday night? Admittedly, even before he'd died he wasn't going out on the pull all that often anymore, but this, _this_ was dropping to a new level of lame.

Thankfully the weevil had gotten back up and was ambling away obediently. He wondered if their telepathy extended to understanding the thoughts of other species. Weevils had been ridiculously easy to order about once he'd tried. He followed, shepherding it towards the sewer entrance a bit further ahead -probably the same one it had come from. A few minutes later, he watched as it disappeared into the dark sewer. He hit his comms again.

"Weevil is home, I'm heading back."

"_See you soon_."

He headed back across the dark reserve, cutting directly across to the carpark where the SUV waited. He'd barely gotten in and started it up when his comms crackled into life again.

"_Owen, we have another weevil alert, in the city this time_."

"Can't you and Jack handle it then?" Owen grumbled. Jack's voice came over the comms.

"_No Owen, it's on Crockherbtown Lane, over near Bute Park. You have the SUV, so we wouldn't get there quickly enough. There's a few nightclubs along there, and I don't want anybody getting hurt, so get a move on_."

Owen swore and put his foot down. At least traffic was fairly light on -mostly taxis taking drunk kids home. "Ianto, which end of the street is it?"

"_It's behind the Oceana Club_." Owen knew the one, he'd frequented it quite a lot in his time. He swung into the lane, ignoring the one way street signs, and screeched to halt. He jumped out, and swore again as he spotted the weevil bearing down on a young couple who'd obviously snuck round the back for a bit of privacy. He sprinted over.

"Oi! You! Back off!" The words weren't so important -he could be shouting the lyrics to a Madonna song and the weevil would still back off as soon as it noticed his presence. But it made more sense to the innocent bystanders this way.

The weevil was close to the couple and they were cowering in fear against the wall -the boyfriend standing half in front in an effort to defend his girl, but obviously terrified himself. The weevil turned to face Owen and started getting down on it's knees. Owen sighed, and waited the mandatory moment before it would get up again.

"Alright, get back up, time to go home," he said to the weevil, and it started to move. He sidled round until he was behind it and urged it towards the nearest sewer entrance. He glanced over to the couple. "Don't move. Stay right where you are until I come back." They stared at him with wide eyes but the guy managed a nod.

He got the weevil back into the sewer easily enough, sprinted back to the SUV and grabbed his medkit.

"Either of you hurt?" he asked. The guy looked down at himself.

"Uh, just a.. there.." he trailed off. Owen looked down and saw blood through a slash in the guys jeans.

"Sit down." He tore the jeans a bit more to check the wound, but it was just a superficial gash. He'd been lucky, wouldn't even need stitches. Owen grabbed the antiseptic from his kit and handed a water bottle to the girl.

"Have some. It'll help you feel better."

"Who- who are you?" she asked shakily.

"I'm a doctor." He nodded at the bottle. "Seriously, drink." She did as she was told, and had a few mouthfuls before handing the bottle to her boyfriend, who did the same. Owen figured that would be enough -they'd had a fairly brief encounter, and the alcohol they'd already had would increase the effects of the retcon anyway. He finished sticking a dressing over the guy's leg and helped him up. "Let's get you two back, eh?" He saw them to the front of the club, and fed the bouncer some line about they guy tripping and landing on broken glass.

* * *

Finally Owen made it back to the hub. He walked in to see Jack sitting at Tosh's terminal, checking the alerts.

"No more tonight, please?"

"Doesn't look like it. Any witnesses at the nightclub?"

"None that'll remember."

"Good."

Owen threw himself into his own chair at the workstation he now shared with Gwen, and swung round to face Jack. "Where's Ianto?"

"I sent him back to bed. Speaking of which..." Jack stood and grinned. Owen raised his hands to stop Jack finishing that sentence.

"Don't wanna know, Captain."

"Right. Well, call if the world is ending."

"Will do."

Jack headed into his office to join Ianto in the bunker underneath. Owen turned back to his computer and opened the game he'd been playing. There were few pleasures left in his world, but he'd found complicated RPG computer games were good for occupying the empty hours.

* * *

Owen had played away the hours of the next night too. Ianto emerged from the bunker looking fresh and neatly attired in a dark suit as usual.

"Morning Owen." Ianto walked past, heading for the coffee machine. Owen grunted in response. Ten minutes later Jack emerged, and took a deep breath.

"Mmm, that beautiful smell. Wish I could wake up to that every day."

"Jack, you do wake up to that almost every day," snorted Owen.

"I know," said Jack. "I just wish there weren't any exceptions." He grinned as Ianto handed him his coffee.

"I'm going to head out and grab some breakfast," said Ianto. "Either of you need anything?" Getting the expected negative responses from both men, he headed out.

Fifteen minutes later he returned with Toshiko in tow, both munching on croissants from the bakery up the street. He handed another in a paper bag to Jack.

"Cheese and ham, your favourite." Jack looked delighted.

"Anything interesting over the weekend?" asked Tosh, logging into her workstation and checking the reports.

"Just two weevils, taken care of by yours truly of course," said Owen, not even pausing his game. Jack walked past on his way back to the office and glanced at Owen's screen.

"Owen, work time now."

"But Gwen's not in yet." They all knew Gwen would be another hour.

"Don't care. I'm still waiting on finished autopsy reports for at least the last two months." Owen knew it was more like three months, but he wasn't about to correct the captain. He sighed and closed the game.

A shrill alarm started sounding.

"Jack! Rift activity!" called Toshiko.

"What is it?" They all instinctively headed for Toshiko's desk.

"Can't tell, something big. Although, I think I've seen this pattern before..."

"Stay there and see if you can figure it out. Ianto, Owen: let's go." Ianto had already grabbed Jack's coat and within seconds they were heading out the door to the SUV.

"Toshiko, where are we going?" Jack asked as he climbed into the driver's seat.

"_Over to the Docks_." Tosh gave them the address and Jack put his foot down.

"Tosh," asked Ianto. "Why didn't this come up on the predictor program? We usually have plenty of warning for large activity."

"_I don't know. I'm still running it through the system to see why it looks familiar_." Tosh sounded tense.

"Any idea what we're looking for?" asked Owen.

"_No, sorry. There's no CCTV over there_."

There was an uneasy silence for a few minutes as Jack drove recklessly towards the docks. For once the other two men didn't mind. Large-scale Rift activity was less common than the regular small activity they usually encountered, but it was always trouble. Owen and Ianto took the opportunity to check their weapons.

"_Jack, I've found the similar rift activity pattern; we've only encountered it once before_."

"What was it?"

"_It was John Hart's arrival_."

* * *

Barely five minutes later they pulled up outside a warehouse, all three leaping from the vehicle and drawing their weapons almost before it had stopped moving. They ran towards the main doors of the building and broke the padlock to let themselves in. It was a storage warehouse for a online store, with tall shelves stacked with pallets of goods waiting to be posted out. But at least it was empty of any workers at this hour of the morning.

They moved quickly and quietly towards the back of the building where Toshiko had indicated, but found nothing there.

"Been almost 10 minutes since the activity happened; if it is another time traveller, they could be anywhere by now," grated Jack.

"We just broke the lock to get in here," said Owen. "Surely that means they're still here somewhere?"

"Not necessarily."

Ianto pulled out the portable Rift Activity Monitor he'd scavenged from Torchwood One all that time ago, and span in a slow circle. To anyone else, it just looked like a PDA, and actually, it had a lot of normal functions too. Torchwood One had been good like that.

"_Actually, I think it's worse than that_," came Tosh's voice. "_This activity pattern is similar to Hart's, __but bigger. Unless we're talking about a time traveller from a much bigger species, we're probably looking at more than one person_."

"In that case, I'd guess three people," said Ianto, still looking at his activity monitor. Jack raised an eyebrow at him.

"_Three would be my guess too, Ianto, how did you figure that_?"

"There's a trail of rift energy that follows anything that comes through, only a few metres long, but it's there."

"And?" said Jack impatiently.

"Well, there's three of them here. Three trails. Whoever they were, they split up."

* * *

**_Please Read & Review?_**


	2. Chapter 2

An hour later, they were all in the boardroom. The three men had searched the warehouse but there had been nothing out of the ordinary to see. They'd arrived back at the Hub about the same time Gwen had turned up, and Jack had immediately ordered them into a meeting.

"So there are what? Three 'Time Agents' running around Cardiff then?" Owen asked.

"Maybe," muttered Jack. He'd been in a sour mood since Tosh had identified the rift energy pattern and it didn't look like improving any time soon. "Time Agents aren't the only people who can travel through time. There are other other species out there that have been travelling through time for billions of years before humans evolved, and plenty of other species can easily pass for human." He glanced at Ianto, wondering if he remembered what he'd been told about the Doctor at Torchwood One.

"So we don't really know what we're looking for then. Could be anyone," said Gwen.

"Yes. All we know is that there's three of them. Well, _probably _three," Jack amended. "For all we know, there could have been six, and they only split into pairs."

"Not unless they were half our size," put in Tosh. "The rift activity wasn't big enough. If we presume they're humanoid and our size, then it was four at most, but more likely only three."

"Any reason we should presume that though? There _are _species out there that are half our size," said Jack with a frown.

"Well, there haven't been any reports of a sudden influx of dwarves in town," said Ianto. "And if I remember rightly, the Zocci race have bright red skin, which I'm sure would get some attention."

"You've met a Zocci?" asked Jack incredulously.

"Not in person, no. But there are photos in the archives."

"It's still more likely then, that we're looking for three humans," said Owen.

Jack sighed. "All I'm saying is, we really don't know what we're up against here and we shouldn't make any assumptions. Plus, Hart told me the Time Agency had been shut down, so that reduces the likelihood of it being agents."

"Providing he told you the truth," snorted Owen. Jack glared at him.

"Tosh, did you figure out why the Rift Predictor program didn't warn us?" asked Ianto.

"Oh, that's easy," said Tosh. "The program only works on normal -random -rift events. Which this wasn't."

"So if someone chooses to enter the Rift and uses a device to make it spit them out here, we won't have any warning?" asked Gwen. Tosh nodded.

"That means whoever they are, they're here for a reason," growled Jack. He somehow contrived to look even more displeased than he had already.

"So, there's nothing we can do about it for now, but keep our eyes and ears open for any trouble these unknown visitors might cause," concluded Tosh. Jack nodded.

"I want us to keep a close eye on police reports and all our usual channels and be ready to jump on anything that looks even slightly out of the ordinary," he ordered. "Let's get to it."

"Right, coffee then?" Ianto offered. There was a chorus of acceptances as they all stood to leave the room. Gwen's phone rang as she followed the others down. She looked at the caller and turned the phone to silent.

"Avoiding someone?" asked Ianto. Gwen followed him over to his work area and leaned on the stair railing behind. He set about making a fresh round of coffee.

"Everyone, I think." Ianto raised an eyebrow at her.

"It's the wedding," she sighed. "None of them remember what happened, which _is_ for the best.."

"But?" Ianto prodded.

"But, that means they're all desperate to see the photos. Not one of them has actually admitted that they don't remember of course, which is amusing in itself," she grinned. "Can you imagine? My Mam and Brenda trying to explain it without admitting they must have had too much to drink? But I've had at least one call from nearly everyone who was there, and several from both our mothers, and it's getting tiresome. Not to mention, the photographer wants to meet up with us to choose which photos we want printed, and getting away from here to meet up with him and Rhys for a few hours isn't easy."

"Talk to Tosh and see what the Rift Predictor says," Ianto suggested. "If we've only got minor rift activity coming up, the rest of us should be able to handle it. Jack won't mind giving you an afternoon off. Here you go," he said, handing her coffee to her. "And take Tosh's too, you can ask her while you're there."

"Thanks Ianto," smiled Gwen.

* * *

A week later, nothing had happened. Jack had been in a bad mood for most of it, and they were all tense, expecting something to go wrong at any moment. Every time an alarm sounded they all jumped and feared the worst, but it was nothing more than the space junk they usually found. Jack had been briefly excited when a sonic blaster fell through the rift, but it had been damaged beyond repair and not even fit to place on display. Ianto archived it. By the end of the week, a sense of normality was reasserting itself over the team. Jack's mood finally seemed to lift and the team subconsciously relaxed.

Owen threw himself into the sofa with a dramatic sigh. Another night of weevil alerts had helped pass the time, though Owen didn't know why he bothered. They seemed to be coming out more and more. Actually, something about that was bothering him tonight.

"Hey Jack!" he called.

"What?" Jack was in his office, catching up on paperwork at 3am. He hadn't been kidding when he told them he didn't sleep much -not unless there was a warm body to cuddle up to, anyway. And Ianto had gone home tonight.

Owen wandered into the office and slouched into one of the chairs opposite the desk. Jack seemed happy for the distraction.

"What can I help you with?"

"Weevils. We know they live in family groups, right?"

"So you've told me. You're the expert Owen, you've done all the research on them."

"OK, but.. other than that one time just after I died, have we ever had more than one go rogue at a time?"

"You mean, together? I don't think so. It's highly unlikely," said Jack thoughtfully. "More than one at a time, in different areas, yes, but not in pairs or groups."

"I had a trio tonight," said Owen.

Jack was incredulous. "Three? Together? What were they doing?"

"Nothing. Not fighting, not shagging, not even going anywhere. Just standing there."

"That is very odd." Jack looked thoughtful again, but then shrugged. "Keep an eye out, see if it happens again I guess."

* * *

Three days later, Owen led Jack and Ianto on a weevil hunt, or what passed for one now. There wasn't so much hunting involved anymore.

"Seriously Jack, they'll be just around this corner, standing around doing nothing, or else just moaning." Owen walked up to the corner where the laneway intersected with a narrow alley. They peered around it and sure enough, there were three weevils. One of them was crouched low and making the low keening noise they'd observed in their resident weevil, Janet, whenever she was in pain. The other two were just standing there.

"And they don't object when you herd them back into the sewer?" asked Jack.

"Nope. In fact -and I know this sounds crazy -but I would almost swear they're grateful."

Ianto looked sideways at the doctor. Maybe being dead was affecting his rationality after all. Owen saw the look and glared back.

"Why is she moaning?" asked Jack, bringing their attention back to the weevils. Nobody had quite worked out why Jack referred to them all as females.

"Don't know," said Owen. "There don't appear to be any physical injuries, and if it was a reaction to the pain of another weevil, then I'd expect all three to be doing it."

"And you said it's happening everywhere?" asked Ianto.

"In four different places around the city, there's been the same two or three weevils standing outside a sewer entrance each night for the last two days, or three days if you count tonight. I'm starting to count them as acquaintances. And last night there were two new locations as well. If those ones start making it a daily habit too, we'll have at least fifteen weevils emerging every night for no reason."

"Maybe we should be locking the sewer entrances they're using," mused Jack.

"Don't know that it would help," said Ianto. "They've been known to break steel grates before. Probably best if we keep sending them home for now."

Owen sighed. "Well, at least I won't be bored of an evening." The other men watched as he moved forward to urge these ones back into the dark safety of the city's sewers.

* * *

Jack stood at the head of the boardroom table.

"Toshiko, what are we looking at today?"

Toshiko glanced down at her PDA. "Small rift spike predicted this afternoon, nothing else today. Possibly something bigger tomorrow morning, but I won't know for sure until closer to the time."

"Owen, update on the weevils?"

"We're still getting the usual one or two going rogue every day or so, and our new spectator groups are still coming out every night. The first group I noticed, in Bute Park, is up to 4 members now, all the others are still just two or three."

"And still no idea why?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, Captain."

"Keep on it. Gwen, how's-" Jack was interrupted by a mobile ringtone. He looked at Ianto.

"Sorry," said Ianto, looking flustered as he hurriedly tried to turn it to silent. The sound stopped and Ianto replaced the phone on the table in front of him. "Please, continue."

"How are we with the Local Authorities Shared Intelligence report, Gwen?" Gwen shuffled the papers in her hands and opened her mouth to answer, when Ianto's mobile started to vibrate loudly on the table's surface. Owen snickered as Ianto snatched it up again.

"Sorry," he said again. Jack looked at him with amusement.

"If it's important Ianto, you could just excuse yourself."

Ianto blushed. "Ah, no, it's just.. my sister. I'll call her back." The phone stopped vibrating in his hand and he took the opportunity to turn it off this time.

"Right, then-" A shrill alarm sounded in the main hub.

"Rift activity!" said Tosh, dashing off to her workstation.

"Sorry, Gwen," said Jack as they all moved to follow her. "We'll have to come back to this later." Gwen just smiled. She wasn't bothered; this was Torchwood. The report wasn't that interesting anyway. Jack reached Tosh's side.

"What've we got?"

"And why didn't we have any warning?" asked Owen. "There was no mention of this a minute ago."

"Don't know, activity size is moderate, could be a bio," said Tosh. A living organism of some description.

"Right people, let's move," ordered Jack.

They piled into the SUV; Tosh, Gwen and Ianto squeezing into the back. Often it was easier just to take four but when possibly about to meet with an unknown species of unknown temperament, the more people on the ground the better. Tosh and Ianto pulled the system screens forward as Jack put his foot down and the SUV roared out onto the street.

"Whereabouts Tosh?"

"It was north-west. I'm just bring the system online here, I'll have a more precise location in a moment."

They waited impatiently for the technology to boot. It only took a few moments but it seemed like forever when you needed the information _now_. Within a minute they had scans running.

Ianto frowned at his screen. "Uh, Tosh?" Gwen looked over to Ianto's screen to see what the problem was, but Tosh had already noticed on her own.

"That's odd.." she said. She tapped out a few commands, but there was no change.

"What's odd?" demanded Owen from the front.

"Tosh?" asked Jack in concern.

"It's gone," she replied. "There's nothing there. It doesn't look like there ever was."

"What?" asked Jack. He pulled the SUV over and turned to look at them.

"She's right," confirmed Ianto. "There's no rift activity, not even the trail of energy we get after an event."

"So, there's no rift activity?" asked Owen.

"Apparently not," said Gwen, still looking over Ianto's shoulder.

"That doesn't make any sense," said Jack. "How can the system record a moderate amount of activity possibly indicative of a bio and then suddenly take it back?"

Tosh looked stunned at the thought of her precious technology failing the team. She ran all the scans a second and third time, but the results were still the same.

"I don't know, Jack," she eventually admitted. "Maybe when we get back to the hub I can run some more tests?"

Jack turned to the road again. "Better check it out anyway, just in case. Whereabouts was it?"

Tosh gave directions and a few minutes later they were cruising through residential streets at what Jack considered a 'slow' pace.

"This is impossible," grumbled Owen. "Even if there's something here it could be in or behind any one of these houses -we'll just go straight past it."

"Or not," said Jack. Owen looked up as Jack stopped the car. There was a single-car accident in front of them. Only the back of the car was visible, turned slightly as though the driver had tried to swerve before hitting something in the middle of the road. There was steam rising from the unseen front of the vehicle. Jack jumped out and strode towards it, the others scrambling to follow.

"There's our moderate bio," said Jack. "A new species for your collection, Owen?"

The 'bio' in question was a large plant, similar in size and shape to a fern, but with bright blue stems and stalks where an earth plant would be brown or dark green.

"Leaves are still green; probably has something similar to chlorophyll that allows it to use visible spectrum light as an energy source," observed Owen. "Perfect candidate for the greenhouse."

"Let's get it back," ordered Jack.

* * *

**R&R?**


	3. Chapter 3

Toshiko spent the rest of the morning poring over her numbers and equations, with Ianto helping where he could, but they couldn't find anything to explain why the Rift Activity Monitor had suddenly stopped reporting the rift activity. The records showed the initial activity readings that had set off the alarm, but then within a minute or so it had dropped back to nothing. The equations that had worked consistently for so long hadn't been accidentally changed or tampered with, and Jack had looked over the physical equipment and reported no signs of wear or damage.

By the time Ianto had gone out and returned with Chinese for lunch, Tosh was thoroughly frustrated by the whole thing. Computers made sense to her; she had always gotten on well with technology, where complex social interactions had confused her and made her shy. So for the technology she thought she knew so well to behave so irrationally was like a betrayal. Jack could see it was bothering her.

"Tosh," he asked between mouthfuls of beef and mixed vegetables. "Does the predictor still say we'll get that minor activity this afternoon?"

Toshiko swung round in her chair to check one of the monitors on her workstation. They were eating in a loose group around the coffee table in the main hub. Owen was playing games at his workstation again.

"Yes," she replied. "Just a small blip showing, probably mid-afternoon. Looks like the usual rift junk pattern."

"Take the afternoon off then. In fact, all of you take the afternoon off," he ordered. "I can handle a bit of space debris."

"There's not a lot of point for me, Captain," started Owen, but Jack cut him off.

"Actually, I definitely want you to go Owen. You've barely been out of the hub during daylight hours of late. Go do something different for a while, it's good for the mind." Owen looked like he was going to argue, but then shrugged and closed the game. He spun around to face the group.

"Anyone interested in a game of laser tag then? Ianto?"

Ianto shook his head. "Sorry, I've got some things I could use the afternoon for."

"I am," said Tosh. "Running about shooting stuff sounds good right now." Owen looked a bit surprised but didn't question it.

"Gwen?"

She shook her head. "No thanks, you two go off and have fun." Ianto came forward and started clearing up the plastic containers and Gwen stepped in to give him a hand.

"Right, we'll be off then," said Owen, following Toshiko down the stairs. The cog door rolled noisily aside as they left. Ianto finished clearing up and turned to Jack.

"If there's nothing else you need..?" he asked.

Jack shook his head. "Go," he replied with a smile. Ianto smiled back before heading for the door, pulling his phone out of his pocket as he went. Jack turned to his last team member.

"I don't have any errands to run, and if I go home, Rhys will expect me to have done the housework," said Gwen, standing with hands on hips. "I'd rather check out a bit of space junk."

Jack chuckled. "Fair enough. You may stay, PC Cooper."

* * *

Ianto had called his sister back and after yelling at him for not calling back sooner, she was delighted to find he had the afternoon off. They agreed to meet for coffee in an hour. Rhiannon didn't mind coming into the city to see him, so he had tidied up in the tourist information centre for a bit while he waited. He hadn't spent much time up here lately, and it was getting dusty. The door swung open.

"Ifan! Oh I've missed you baby brother!" Ianto wanted to run and hide from her overzealous affection, but she would have followed him around the back of the counter. So instead he stepped out from behind it and endured her embrace.

"Don't call me Ifan," he muttered, but then pulled back and smiled. "You're looking good."

"You're looking skinny," she retorted. "You eating enough?"

"Rhiannon, I'm fine," he said, rolling his eyes. "C'mon, let's get out of here." He switched the sign on the shop to 'closed' and ushered her out.

"What, you get given the afternoon off and there's nobody to mind the shop for you? I thought you had other workers with you here?"

"Oh, uh, yeah." Ianto hadn't thought of that. "They've just stepped out to grab some afternoon tea, they'll be back and open it up again in five. Come on." He took Rhiannon's arm and steered her away.

"So how are Mica and David?"

"They're good of course, although David was upset you missed his birthday."

"I sent a card and a gift -I told you I wasn't sure if I'd be able to be there."

"Doesn't stop a little boy from hoping his uncle will turn up. And since when does a tourist information centre employee work seven days a week? You'd think you were a doctor saving lives or something with the importance you give that job. It's not right Ianto."

Ianto sighed. This was the one way in which Ianto's cover story fell down. Gwen's 'special ops' cover with Rhys had been much better, although if he tried to tell his sister that now it would never wash.

"You're right, I'm sorry. I'll see if I can get some time off and spend a weekend sometime."

Rhiannon look dubious. "Really? You? A whole weekend?" They had reached the cafe and Ianto held the door for his sister.

"Of course I would," said Ianto, vaguely offended. "I do miss you, you know. And the family. It's just.. things keep getting away from me." Rhiannon smiled at that.

"Oh, you." She grabbed her brother in a quick hug then turned to order at the counter. They got their drinks, which Ianto insisted on paying for, and took a table near the back.

"So, what have you been up to? Do you have a girlfriend?" Rhiannon asked. Ianto had expected the inquisition so he wasn't surprised by her bluntness.

"No," he replied honestly, grateful she hadn't phrased the question differently. Ianto was good at hiding things, but he preferred not to have lie outright. "Been keeping busy, you know. What about you? How are the kids doing at school?" Rhiannon was never happier than when talking about her children, and Ianto relaxed as his sister's attention was completely diverted.

* * *

Some time later, Jack and Gwen arrived in a quiet street out the back of Splott. There was a park on one side and a line of houses on the other.

"Splott. Why is it always Splott?" mused Gwen.

"There are well-documented activity hotspots; Splott is one of them," said Jack. "Come on."

They locked the SUV and wandered into the park. Jack pulled out the portable activity monitor and scanned the area, looking for what was likely to be a small object. Suddenly the device started a shrill beeping. Jack looked alarmed.

"That can't be right!"

"What is it?" asked Gwen.

"It says we have three bios, large ones.. in fact," he pressed a few buttons on his wrist strap and was surprised by the result. "Hoix!"

"Hoix?" asked Gwen. Jack strode back to the SUV and opened the back.

"Hoix. They're like large mutant boars, and they live to eat. They can be violent, but we should be okay so long as they have something to eat besides us."

"Right.." said Gwen uncertainly as Jack handed her two syringes. "Sedative?"

"Yep. We'll have to get them back to the hub." Jack grabbed the rift monitor again and headed off in the direction the alert had come from. Gwen jogged to keep up.

"They don't appear to have moved, which probably means they've already found something to munch on," Jack said. "That'll make this easier." Suddenly there was a scream, and they both looked up in shock, then started to run. Just through the next trees, they spotted them -three hoix, and one man. He had his back to a park garbage bin, and was frozen in place. The hoix were snorting angrily and looked about ready to charge.

"Hey!" Jack yelled, partially to distract the hoix and also to get the man's attention. "Run!"

The guy didn't take his eyes off the aliens. Nor did he move. Jack held out a hand to stop Gwen.

"Go around the other side." Gwen moved back and headed to the far side of the stand-off. Jack started to move up towards the man just as the Hoix charged. Jack gave a shout and pushed the man sideways towards Gwen, but received a full tusk to the stomach himself. A second Hoix appeared in his view and also stabbed violently into him with both it's tusks. Everything went black.

* * *

He resurrected with a gasp a few minutes later, and there was a moment of disorientation before he remembered why he was lying in the grass. Gwen's head appeared as she leaned over him.

"Back with us, I see," she grinned.

He grunted in response and climbed to his feet. Then he saw the other man lying on the ground. "Oh god -he didn't-"

"No, he's fine," said Gwen. "Got a tusk wound to the thigh, but it's not bleeding much. Actually, he didn't faint until he saw your body, so I'm guessing it was the sight of you that did him in."

Jack chuckled, then looked around. One Hoix lay on the ground, heavily asleep. But..

"Gwen? Where are the other two?"

"Er..." Gwen looked conflicted. "I lost my syringes, used one of yours to get that one," she indicated the sleeping alien. "And I wasn't sure whether to head off to the SUV for more, or stay with you two, in case.. I dunno. And the other two just kind of ambled off when they'd finished ransacking that bin, so.."

Jacked sighed and grabbed the portable monitor, scanning to find out where they had gone. One was up near edge of the park, and the other was heading up the street.

"Gwen, go follow the one that's heading up that way. I'll get the others here and someone will bring you a sedative. Just don't let it out of your sight, and make sure no one gets in it's way." He reached up and tapped his comms. "Ianto, Owen, Tosh, I need you here, now!"

* * *

Rhiannon was chatting on about Mica's part in the upcoming school play, and Ianto smiled indulgently as he sipped his coffee. He jumped as the yell came through his earpiece. He instantly put a hand to his ear to activate his end.

"I'm here, Jack, what's wrong?" he asked worriedly, cutting off Rhiannon mid-sentence. She stopped and looked at him in surprise.

"_We've got three Hoix and at least one civilian already down_."

"On my way." He stood up and leaned over to kiss Rhiannon on the cheek, grabbing his suit jacket from the back of his chair. "Sorry, I've got to go."

"Go where?" asked Rhiannon, confusion and frustration showing in equal measure across her face. "We've barely been here an hour. Ianto!" She stood to follow but he was already out the door.

* * *

Ianto jogged towards Roald Dahl Plass and tapped his comms again.

"Where are you?"

"_Splott_," said Jack. "_If you're near the hub, grab some more sedative on your way. And why the hell haven't Tosh & Owen responded?_" Jack was panting and it sounded like he was running.

"I'll keep trying them," said Ianto. "Gwen is with you?" Jack made an affirmative noise and switched off his comm again. Ianto reached the water tower and used the lift to get into the hub quicker. He pulled out his phone and dialled Owen's mobile whilst the lift descended. No answer. He tried Tosh as he ran across the Hub, grabbing several syringes of Torchwood's all-species sedative. No answer there either. He kept calling both numbers as he snatched up an extra medkit and headed out to the carpark. He threw the gear in and started his car, and Tosh finally answered her phone.

"Ianto? What's wrong?" She sounded breathless.

"We've got three Hoix in Splott, Jack and Gwen are there but they need backup and there's already civilians hurt."

"Right, we'll be there in five." Ianto could hear Owen moaning in the background at that but Tosh shushed him.

"Are you ok Tosh?" asked Ianto. "You sound out of breath. Why weren't you answering on the comms?"

"No, no, we're fine -they don't let you take phones into laser tag that's all. Owen says he left his earpiece in last time and got kicked out when it supposedly interfered with their systems." Oh, right. Ianto had forgotten they were going to play laser tag.

"Right, well get there as soon as you can."

"We'll be right behind you."

* * *

**R&R?**


	4. Chapter 4

In fact, Tosh & Owen pulled up just ahead of Ianto. Jack jogged over to meet them.

"Right, we've got one Hoix by the rubbish bin in the park there, it's already been sedated. We've got two more, one in the backyard of this place," he pointed to the back of one in a row of terraces. "And Gwen took off after the other up that way." He waved a hand further down the street.

"Injured civilians?" asked Owen.

"One man, in the park just through the trees. Got between them and a rubbish bin. Go see to him first Owen. Ianto, go after Gwen, Tosh with me." Ianto handed Tosh a couple of the extra sedative syringes and jogged up the street. He tapped his comms to ask Gwen where she was, and caught up to her two streets later. The hoix had found a group of rubbish bins in an enclosed driveway, and Gwen was standing nearby, watching. The hungry creature had knocked over a few of the bins and had it's head well inside one.

"Alright?" asked Ianto. She looked over.

"Yeah, just didn't have any sedative to tackle it with, so just letting it eat it's heart out while I waited. You brought some, right?"

Ianto held up two syringes. "How is it you ran out? The SUV is always stocked."

"I dropped one in the grass in the park, and broke the needle off the other in a failed attempt," Gwen admitted with a sheepish grin. "Didn't have time to go back to the SUV after Jack ordered me not to lose this one."

Ianto handed the spare syringe to her and quietly moved forward, staying behind the Hoix so as to remain unnoticed. He needn't have worried; it was completely engrossed in ravaging the bin. He easily stabbed it and mere seconds later it started to sway before crashing to the ground.

"_Ianto, Gwen. Tell me there's three of you ready to be picked up_."

"Yep, we're all done Jack," replied Gwen. She looked up at the house whose drive they were standing on. "We're going to need some retcon here though." Ianto followed her gaze to the window in time to see a scared young woman holding a baby move away from the window.

"_We're going to need some here too -the whole family was home at the house this Hoix chose. I'll bring the SUV over and pick up the sleeper. Gwen, can you handle the retcon there?_"

"Sure."

"_Ianto, you can help me move that beast and then do the retconning down here -Tosh is helping Owen patch the casualty_."

"Right, Jack." Ianto pulled the ever-present bottle of short-term retcon tablets out of his pocket, and handed a couple to Gwen. "You might as well go introduce yourself," he said to her. "Tell them it was wild dogs or something, to explain the damage."

Gwen knocked on the front door and Ianto listened as she convinced the young mother she was police, and then disappeared into the house.

Ianto walked over to the hoix and pulled it's head out from the bin. He heard the SUV pull up behind him.

"What a mess," Jack commented. Ianto grinned.

"One I don't have to clean up. Gwen's telling them it was dogs."

Jack chuckled. "Let's get it in the back." Ianto looked over at Jack as they arranged themselves either side of the sleeping beast, and finally noticed how much blood was all over him. And the holes in his shirt.

"You died again." It wasn't a question, just a statement of fact. There was no accusation in Ianto's voice, but Jack knew Ianto hated it if he put himself in harm's way unnecessarily.

"It was me or the civilian."

Ianto nodded. So long as it had been worthwhile.

It took both of them heaving and pushing to get the heavy alien into the SUV, next to the one Tosh and Jack had already put there. Jack drove them back down to the park and headed over to the others. Owen was stitching up a gash in the man's thigh.

"Next time, _don't_ bother defending council property," Owen huffed to the man. He looked pale and shaken, but he was awake, and Owen's attitude assured the others he'd be fine. Ianto looked around.

"Did you want a hand moving the last one?"

"No, I'll get Owen to help me when he's done here. You should probably see to that family now," said Jack.

"How many?"

"Three adults, two kids," said Tosh. "I told them it was new giant breed of pig but I don't know how much they believed me. They're expecting you though. Told them we'd have a damages claim form for them to fill out."

"Right." Ianto headed over, stopping by his car to grab a clipboard and some official-looking papers. He knew he kept these things handy for a reason. He knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" called a wary voice. A man.

"Andrew Jones, from the council." The door opened and an older man stood in the doorway, glaring.

"The Asian woman said you were from a research institute."

"Uh, yeah," Ianto thought quickly. "The research is covered by a council grant, so council handles the paperwork when there's mishaps and.. incidents." The man just stood there. Ianto felt awkward. "Uh, can I come in? So we can get this paperwork sorted."

"Alright," the man grunted. He turned and yelled into the house. "Alison! Put the kettle on!"

* * *

When Ianto finally arrived back at the hub, it was early evening.

"All good?" asked Jack.

"Yeah," he replied. "All done. Won't remember a thing, and think there was a nasty storm overnight that ruined their kid's play equipment."

"Good. See what you can do about finding some food for our new guests."

Ianto raised an eyebrow. "I could give them our scraps. A new hub recycling initiative."

"Not unless you fancy cleaning up the kind of 'waste' they would produce on that diet," Jack grinned. Ianto pulled a face and started to walk away. "Wait, actually, can you do a round of coffees? We need a team meeting."

"Sure." He headed down to his workstation and spent five minutes enjoying the normal, precise skill of making excellent coffee. It was a skill he'd perfected during his teenage years, working in a local coffee shop, and one that still made him feel grounded and relaxed. For this reason -and the opportunity to have decent coffee, of course -he was happy to put up with Owen's nicknames. He had always been good in customer service jobs and took pleasure in getting each person's drink just as they liked it. Of course, it was only four drinks these days, since Owen no longer needed sustenance. He carefully finished the last coffee, and took the tray up to the boardroom.

The others were already waiting, and there was a chorus of thanks as he handed out the drinks. "Perfect as usual, Ianto," Jack said, winking at him. Ianto blushed and took his seat.

"Right." Jack switched back to captain mode. "We've got problems. The Rift Activity Monitor doesn't appear to be working. This morning it told us the rift activity had stopped dead when it shouldn't have, and this afternoon it told us something small had happened when in fact it was three Hoix."

"Which should have registered as a large amount of activity," said Tosh.

"Has something caused it to switch the readings, like they're inverted maybe?" asked Gwen. "It says there's big activity when it should say small, and it says there's small when in fact it's big."

"Maybe," said Tosh. "I did wonder that too. But in that case, what would it mean when it says there's nothing happening? Like right now?"

"And it definitely hasn't been tampered with?" asked Owen. Tosh shook her head.

"I checked over the whole thing," said Jack. "It hasn't been touched physically, and Tosh and Ianto went over the program with a fine tooth comb this morning."

"Jack," put in Ianto. "Did you use the portable monitor in Splott this afternoon?"

"Yes," Jack replied.

"And?"

"It picked up the rift energy readings immediately.." Jack realised what Ianto was getting at. "The portable monitor is still accurate. From now on, we use it on every call out."

"Can we use it here, to verify the main one?" asked Gwen.

Ianto shook his head. "It only has a short range, about 1500 feet. Far enough to be useful, but not from the hub."

There was a moment of silence as they tried to come up with other suggestions.

"Tosh, what does the Predictor program forecast now?" asked Jack eventually.

She grabbed the remote and brought up the latest report on the boardroom monitor. It didn't make much sense to anyone else, but that didn't matter.

"There's nothing predicted for tonight or tomorrow morning, but.. whoa."

"'Whoa'? Is that a technical term?" snarked the doctor.

Tosh sent a brief glare at him. "It's showing something massive for tomorrow afternoon. And I swear that wasn't there earlier."

"Can you tell any other details?" asked Jack.

"No, the predictor isn't as precise as the proper rift monitor. It can't give location or an exact time, or any details on the object itself besides a rough size. Could be bio or inanimate, all we know is tomorrow afternoon, and big."

"If the monitor's not giving readings inversely, and three adult Hoix showed up as a minor blip," said Gwen uncertainly, "how big is this thing going to be?"

There was a very uncomfortable silence.

"Alright." Jack ran a hand through his hair. "Here's what we'll do. Ianto, Owen and I will stay tonight in case anything happens. You girls go home and get a good night's rest. Owen and I can go without a break, but Ianto, you can go home early in the morning and sleep. Then come back after lunch, so we're all here and ready for whatever it might be. Agreed?" There was nodding and a murmured chorus of agreement. Relieved to at least have a plan of action, they trooped back downstairs to their workstations.

"Oh, bloody hell," moaned Gwen. "I have an appointment with the wedding photographer tomorrow afternoon."

"Not anymore you don't," said Jack as he walked past.

"Rhys is going to kill me."

* * *

The night passed relatively without incident. Owen spent most of the night out dealing with more weevils, which were still continuing the new pattern of emerging in small groups but not attacking. Owen had become almost relaxed about it, and didn't bother hurrying to a new alert unless there was only one reported weevil. A single weevil on it's own still tended to be a rogue which had gone violent, but the pairs and trios and groups were sedate, without exception. It bothered the doctor from a scientific point of view -any sudden change in behaviour was bad news, especially on this scale. He made a mental note to get Ianto to check the archives for him, and see if there was any record of the weevils ever having behaved like this before.

It was generally the same locations over and over, making it easy for Owen to find them each time. The numbers in each group were slowly growing too, and the first few groups to appear were up to six weevils each night. They were lucky that the majority of them were wearing boiler suits these days, and didn't stand out too much in the dark.

_What I'd really like to do, _thought Owen,_ is bring one in and study it. See if I could find the cause_. But with the other problems going on, he couldn't make it a priority, and even if he brought one in he wasn't sure what he'd be looking for. After all, he was plenty close enough now to know there were no physical injuries.

Owen had started taking his own car for his nightly weevil duty, in case there was a rift alert, so Ianto spent the night restocking the SUV's supplies. He went through the entire inventory and made sure they had everything -a full complement of weapons, ammunition, sedatives, retcon of various strengths, bottles of water (which came in handy for both administering retcon and washing human and alien blood off) and checked that the vehicle itself was in good working order.

About 3am, he jumped when a pair of arms wound around his waist and pulled him close. He straightened up and leaned against Jack's chest.

"Need a hand with anything?"

"You have impeccable timing sir; I was just finishing up."

"Need a hand with anything else then?" Jack murmured. His hands pulled Ianto's hips back against his own, leaving no doubt about what he had in mind. Ianto huffed.

"If we even start anything, it will jinx us and there will definitely be rift activity tonight. Or a horde of weevils. Or an alien invasion attempt. So no."

Jack pouted. Ianto sometimes marvelled at how immature Jack could be, especially given his status as the oldest human alive. He wondered if it was a coping strategy, or if it was just how Jack was. No, he decided, it was just Jack...


	5. Chapter 5

When Ianto brought lunch into the hub the next day, the tension in the air was palpable. The morning had been dead quiet, leaving everyone with far too much time to spend worrying about the afternoon. They were relieved when Ianto announced that food was on in the boardroom. It was just fish & chips, with salad, bread and butter available, but at least it was something to do.

"What's the latest from the predictor program?" asked Jack.

"Same as every other time you've asked this morning," Tosh snapped.

Jack winced. "Sorry."

"No it's ok," she sighed. "I didn't mean to snap. And Ianto needs to be updated anyway." She glanced over at Ianto. "It's changed a little since yesterday, which is normal -the predictions usually get refined a bit as we get closer to the time. It's increased in size slightly, and it's narrowed down the probable time frame to between 4pm and 6pm." Ianto nodded.

"Alright," said Jack. "We've got a few hours anyway. Let's try and use them for something worthwhile."

Gwen and Tosh made their way back downstairs, leaving Jack and Ianto alone. Owen hadn't bothered to come up for lunch -he didn't mind the others eating in front of him but he didn't see any reason to join them either. Jack moved around to where Ianto was tidying up from lunch, and pulled him into a hug. Ianto didn't mind; he'd noticed Jack tended to want more physical contact when things were tense.

"Sleep well?"

"Mm-hmm," Ianto responded. "How's it been here?"

"Too quiet," said Jack.

"Careful, you'll be wishing for that soon."

"I know. But I'll feel better when something happens. The anticipation is the worst. No, change that. Not having any idea what we're up against is the worst."

"How to be prepared for the unknown," agreed Ianto. "But we're as prepared as we can be, and no one can ask more than that."

"I just hope it'll be enough."

"It will be, Jack. It'll have to be." Ianto squeezed the other man for a moment before extricating himself from his arms. He finished clearing the table and gathered the bags of rubbish. "Coffee?"

Jack smiled then. "As if I could say no." They made their way downstairs and Jack headed back to his office. Ianto made a round of coffees and gave Tosh and Gwen theirs, then headed for Jack's office. Owen called out as Ianto passed the stairs.

"Ianto, my friend, just the man I was looking for."

Ianto raised his eyebrows. "You were looking for me in the autopsy bay?"

"I was hoping for a favour. This weird behaviour with the weevils, I wondering if you could check the archives and see if anything like this has ever happened before."

"Sure. How far back should I go? Torchwood has records of them dating back to the 50's I think."

"As far back as you can. If it's ever happened, even just once, I want to know. There's something about this that bothers me, and the sooner I know what it is the better."

"Well, I don't think I have much else to keep me occupied for the next couple of hours -I'll just take Jack's coffee up and then I'll see what I can find."

"Thanks mate."

Ianto was happy to be have something to do in the archives. As much as he liked the systematic process of putting files away in proper order and making sure everything was neat & tidy, the ultimate pleasure in having organised archives came in being able to retrieve information from such a system. That was the whole point after all. And really, with most of the information being on the Tosh's databases these days, Ianto didn't get nearly enough opportunities to research the old-fashioned way.

He started with the most recent weevil reports, working backwards, and compiling dates, times, and locations on a lecture pad, but he didn't come across any involving weevils coming out in groups of two or more. Nor did he find any mentions of weevils repeatedly emerging in the same locations night after night. There were a lot of reports to go through though -weevil alerts averaged once or twice a week, which amounted to a lot of reports. They basically had their own section of the archives these days. He had gotten to the mid-1990's when Jack's voice came over the comms.

"_Ianto, any chance of another round?_"

He reached up to activate his own. "Sure Jack, be up in five."

"_Thanks_."

Ianto finished the reports he had out, noted them on his pad and filed them away again, then headed upstairs. He distributed another round of coffees, leaving Jack until last as per usual. He took Jack's and his own up to the office.

"Ah, perfect," Jack sighed, eyes closing. Ianto noticed he was tense. He moved around to Jack's side of the desk and leaned against it, his legs touching Jack's.

"You ok?"

Jack opened his eyes again. "Just tired of playing parent to the bickering children out there," he sighed. "The tension is getting to everyone."

Ianto checked his watch. Five to four. "Shouldn't be too much longer," he said.

Jack nodded. "I hope not, even as I hope it doesn't happen at all."

Ianto headed back out and stopped at the railing over the autopsy bay. There was no point heading down to the archives again now -if the alarm sounded he'd have to stop in the middle of whatever he was doing. Owen glanced up at him.

"Any luck with the weevil history?"

"Not yet. I've gone back about 15 years so far, no mentions of weevils in groups or emerging repeatedly. I'll keep looking, later."

Owen nodded briefly. "Thanks mate."

Ianto headed over to Tosh's workstation. Gwen was standing behind her.

"No Gwen! I'm not doing it again! It won't make any difference!" Tosh sounded exasperated.

"But you said, the closer we get to the time the more accurate-"

"But it will never truly be accurate. The predictor program simply _isn't _any more accurate than this!"

Ianto coughed politely behind them. They turned.

"Running scans again?" he asked, looking at Gwen.

"I just thought, now that it's four o'clock.." Gwen trailed off, looking defeated.

"But it really won't change anything Gwen," said Tosh, sounding calmer again. "Look, I've set the scans to refresh every ten minutes, but once we're this close to something it doesn't tend to change. It'll just keep predicting that something will happen 'soon' right up until it happens."

"Alright, sorry." Gwen looked lost. She glanced back at her workstation, then around the hub, as if trying to decide what to do.

"Why don't you find something to read and sit on the sofa for a bit?" suggested Ianto. "That way you'll be right here when it happens."

Gwen looked relieved. "Yeah, alright. That's a good idea. Try and relax a bit." She nodded to herself and moved away to grab a magazine from her bag.

"Thanks," said Tosh quietly. "She was driving me insane."

"It's just the stress, and feeling so helpless," soothed Ianto. "We're all feeling it."

Tosh nodded. "I know."

"And, possibly, also, too much caffeine. Maybe I shouldn't have made that last round," he mused.

Tosh smiled at that. "At least we'll have super-fast reflexes when this thing hits."

"Still predicting between now and six?"

"Yes. And still about the same size. The prediction has been consistent for over 12 hours; gives me hope that it might be accurate."

Ianto sipped his drink, and he and Tosh continued to chat for a while. They talked about anything and everything unrelated to Torchwood. Neither of them had been to the cinema in a long while but they could compare DVD collections. Tosh had a stereotypical liking for romantic comedies, but they both enjoyed a good action movie -usually laughing at the special effects. They agreed it was amazing how if a bad guy got caught in an explosion, you could safely assume he was dead, but if a good guy got caught in one, he will conveniently find some means to survive, and usually with only superficial injuries.

Eventually the conversation got round to childhood favourites, and then their respective upbringings. Tosh asked about the phone call in the meeting the other day, and Ianto explained about his sister.

"I feel bad; really I do, but it's nearly impossible to make plans with this job, even when things are working like they should."

Tosh nodded. "I'm glad I don't have too much trouble with that. My parents moved between Osaka and London a lot when I was growing up, but since they've retired they've mostly stayed in Japan."

"And they don't demand you take holidays to visit?"

She laughed. "They do, but the Japanese are notorious workaholics. It's part of the culture. So when I say 'I can't, there's too much on at work'.."

"They just accept that. Lucky you," he smiled wryly. "I get lectures."

"No," Tosh frowned. "You should consider yourself lucky Ianto. You have a family who love you and want to see you -and they live close enough that you really should get that chance. Once we've sorted out what's going on with the rift monitor, you should talk to Jack about setting up a regular day off, once a fortnight or something, so you can spend time with them."

"I'd love that," said Ianto, but then his smile faltered. "But if things came up while I wasn't here -and they would, of course -if someone got hurt because the team was one person down, I'd never be able to forgive myself."

"Ianto, the team was one person less before you started coming out in the field with us. And when I started here, it was just Jack and me. Then Suzie, then Owen, joined us. However many people we have, we manage. Ianto," She forced him to look at her. "Promise me you'll talk to Jack and start seeing your family more often?"

They were interrupted before Ianto could respond as Jack came bounding out of his office. Gwen looked up from the sofa and sat up properly as he came over.

"Jack? What's happened?" she asked. They were all instantly on-edge, anticipating his response, and Ianto swore that even the noises coming from the autopsy bay paused as they waited for the answer.

"Er, nothing," said Jack, looking sheepish. "I just couldn't sit still any longer." They all deflated. Gwen sagged back into the couch. Ianto checked his watch again -it was just past five. Jack moved to join them at Tosh's workstation. "Still no change?"

Tosh looked up at the appropriate screen. "Slight change in time frame: any time between now and seven. Other than that, no."

Ianto wandered off to find something to do that would keep him occupied, but that could also be dropped in an instant when the rift alarm finally sounded. He settled for polishing the coffee machine, bringing it back to the shiny, unblemished state it had arrived in so long ago. Then he gathered the dirty mugs from around the hub and washed them all -denying Jack's request for another round since it wasn't that long since the previous one. Having good reflexes was one thing, but being shaky or jumpy due to too much caffeine was a step too far.

At quarter to six, the predictor still said anywhere in the next two hours. Ianto fetched a book he'd been keeping in the tourist office for those quiet mornings. Gwen loaned her magazine to Tosh and went to call Rhys. Owen plonked himself down in the chair in Jack's office and picked the older man's brain about various alien species.

Finally, at seven-thirty, the rift alarm sounded. All five of them were on their feet and at Tosh's workstation in seconds.

"What have we got, and where?" demanded Jack.

Tosh was typing in commands quicker than the others could follow. "The playground of Mount Stuart Public School, Butetown. That's only a few streets away."

"I love it when they come to us," said Jack. "We'll be quicker on foot. Let's go."

"We might need the SUV's supplies," put in Ianto.

"You're right, get it and meet us there." Jack cursed himself for not thinking of that, but they were all so wound up, he just wanted to know what they were facing. Besides, that was why he had Ianto. To think of the things he forgot.

Jack, Gwen, Owen and Tosh jogged out of the tourist office. Jack glanced around, thankful there weren't many people on the wharf tonight, and took off up the stairs. He turned to look for Tosh as they jogged down the road. The corner of the school's grounds were visible at the end of the street, but it all looked dark so far.

"Did the alert have any other details on what we're looking for?"

"No signs of a bio," Tosh replied, panting. "So assumably, a ship, a satellite, or some other kind of large debris."

"Good thing it chose an empty field then," came Gwen's comment from behind them.

They were reaching the corner of the block now, and more of the grounds came into view. Then they were there, and..

"So where is it?" asked Owen moodily. "Where's our giant space junk?"

The playground was empty. Dark, silent, and empty.

* * *

**R&R?**


	6. Chapter 6

The team spread out across the freshly mown grass, but Owen's initial assessment was right: there was no sign of anything unusual, living or inanimate, of any size. No sign of rift activity at all. Ianto pulled up in the SUV and jumped out.

"Got the portable monitor?" Jack called.

"Yeah. Nothing to see then?" Ianto responded.

"Not so far."

Ianto turned on the monitor and scanned it across the yard. Nothing. He continued to turn in a circle away from the school, and the device lit up. "Jack! Got something!"

The others jogged over to him from various corners of the field.

"Where?" demanded Jack.

"500 feet that way." He pointed toward Mermaid Quay. "But it's the wrong size. This says we're only looking at a small object."

"What's the definition of 'small' again?" asked Jack.

"About a shoebox or less."

Jack sighed. "Well, come on. Small doesn't mean safe. Owen, grab a containment box."

Owen detoured via the SUV to get it, then hurried after the others. They ran past the Techniquest Science Centre, back up the street a short way then turned onto the Quay. There were a few people about, on their way to or from restaurants, but nobody looked alarmed or bothered by anything. That was a good sign.

Ianto led them, following the signal on the portable monitor in his hands. Eventually he stopped.

"Here. It's somewhere.. here." They looked around them, and saw nothing out of the ordinary. They were on a concrete walkway, between the science centre and the bay. There were lightpoles and signs pointing the way to restaurants and popular tourist areas, but nothing that would hide an object. Not even a public bench. Ianto ran a hand through his hair in confusion.

"Are you sure there's definitely something?" asked Gwen.

"Great, another false alarm," Owen muttered.

"The portable monitor hasn't been wrong yet," said Ianto, but he was frowning in concern.

"Ianto, what's the accuracy on that thing?" asked Tosh. Normally she would be the one answering such questions, but this was something Ianto had brought with him from Torchwood London. He had more experience with it.

"About the same as standard GPS systems," he replied. "Can vary between three feet and twenty."

"So, it could be in the water then?" Everyone followed her gaze and groaned. Jack walked to the railing and looked into the water.

"Yup, there it is," he said calmly. The others rushed to the edge and looked down. Something dull red or brown was reflecting the streetlight, about two feet down. Jack shrugged off his greatcoat, and Ianto automatically took it.

"Jack, you can't just-" Gwen's objection was cut short as Jack climbed over the railing and stepped into the water.

"You're ignoring every safety protocol," observed Toshiko.

"Because I know what this is," said Jack. The water reached mid-thigh but he didn't seem to mind. He bent over to pick the object up, getting thoroughly wet in the process, and emerged triumphantly. He was holding a tall glass bottle.

"This, my friends, is our reward for all our troubles today. A-" he paused to check the date "-4553 vintage red wine."

* * *

Jack broke the seal on the bottle and screwed off the lid.

"Some things don't change then," said Gwen, looking at the bottle in Jack's hands. "Wine still comes in glass wine bottles."

"It comes in other ways as well, and in some parts glass bottles are hard to find," said Jack. "Occasionally you can even find ones with corks, although those are usually special collector's vintage." He poured them each a glass, and they settled back to taste it. Sighs and quiet groans of appreciation filled the boardroom.

"They certainly know how to brew a good red in the 46th century," said Ianto.

"Well they've had a fair while to perfect it by then," chuckled Jack. They sat in silence for a minute longer, each not wanting to think about the bigger picture, and what this wine really meant.

Eventually Jack had to break the contented silence.

"As lovely as this is, we've still got a problem. The predictor told us something very big was coming, and in fact it was something quite small. Then the activity monitor gave us the wrong location."

"The time was wrong too," said Gwen. "It told us between 4pm and 6pm for ages, but it didn't arrive until half past seven."

"That's not so unusual," said Tosh. "There's been plenty of times before when the timing can be out by and hour or two. But the predicted size should have been close, and the activity monitor has never been wrong about the location of rift activity." Tosh was despondent at the thought of her technology betraying her like this.

"But what can we do about it?" asked Ianto. "_Is_ there anything we can do about it?"

"I don't know," she said miserably. "I'll run through the equations again, maybe we missed something yesterday.."

"For now," said Jack, "we'll have to stop relying on it. If it's not reporting rift activity correctly, how can we be sure it's reporting every event? For all we know, there have been times in the last week when something's happened, and the monitor didn't tell us about it."

"So what do we do?" asked Owen.

"We monitor every other resource we have. Police radio, emergency call numbers, news reports. And we treat every call-out as major. Full response, every time."

"We'll need to be ready around the clock then," said Ianto. "Might I suggest a roster?"

Owen snorted. "A roster for what?"

Ianto fixed him with a Look. "Some of us still require sleep. If we need to be ready for something major, all the time, the best option will be to have four people on at all times. Thus: we should work out a roster for who gets to sleep when."

"Ianto's right," said Jack. "Even I can't go for weeks on end without rest. And we don't know how long this will go on for. We should be prepared for it continue for the foreseeable future."

"So I should tell Rhys he won't be seeing much of me for a while then?" Gwen sighed. Ianto was wondering the same about his sister. Maybe he should tell her he's going away on business for a while? Tourism conference in London?

Jack was thinking. "Tosh, can you run a report on what times of day rift events occur at? See if there's a pattern of quiet and busy times of day?"

"Sure," she said. "Now?"

"Yes please." Tosh headed out to her workstation. "I think I already know the answer to this," said Jack, "but I'd rather find out if the data backs me up."

The rest of the team sipped their wine and waited. Tosh was back in under five minutes.

"I ran the last ten years of data -if there's pattern that should be enough for us to see it." She grabbed the remote for the display in the boardroom, and a graph appeared.

"Just as I suspected," said Jack, leaning forward to examine the graph. It showed a peak in rift activity at sunset, and a fairly constant level throughout the night hours, with a brief dip at dawn. There was a regular level again throughout the morning and afternoon but with a significant drop in the middle.

"Between 10am and 2pm is the lowest likelihood of rift events," said Tosh. "Peak is at sunset and stays fairly high throughout the night."

"OK, Owen and I will split the quiet hours," started Jack.

"Hang on, I don't need to sleep at all," objected Owen. "Why not have me on call 24 hours? My body won't wear out."

"No, but your mind could still use a break," said Jack. "You don't have to rest, or even go home, but consider it time when you can do whatever you want and know that we won't interrupt." Owen looked like he might still argue the point, but after a moment he shrugged.

"Alright."

"Good." Jack turned to the others. "That leaves 20 hours to split between three."

"If I take six hours, that leaves you two seven hours each," said Ianto said to the two girls. Tosh started to protest, but Ianto put up a hand to stop her. "If I sleep here at the hub, I can make the most of those hours."

"Alright," said Gwen. She and Tosh could take seven hours each, but they'd have to drive to and from home in that time, so it worked out about the same. Ianto pulled out a pen and paper and they drew it up. Tosh would sleep in the afternoon, Gwen would take the overnight shift so she could sleep with Rhys, and Ianto would sleep in the mornings. Jack would take the two hours before midday, and Owen would take the two hours after it.

The roster went into effect immediately. Jack sent Gwen home early that night, so she'd have a chance to explain to Rhys what was happening. Owen was kept occupied overnight with his regular weevil groups, which still didn't show any signs of abating. Ianto kept the caffeine flowing, especially for Tosh who had the longest wait before her first sleeping shift.

* * *

An alarm sounded in the hub the next day. One that didn't usually sound at that time of day. Owen looked up in confusion. "Can't be.." he muttered. He ran up the stairs to where Gwen sat at their shared workstation.

"Is that a weevil alert?" asked Ianto, emerging from Jack's office. Jack had disappeared into his bunker a few minutes earlier.

"Yeah," said Gwen, "but it can't be right, they never come out during the day."

"Better check it out," said Tosh from her desk.

"I'll come," said Ianto. "If it is a weevil, there might be witnesses to deal with."

They arrived at a thankfully quiet corner of Bute Park. Owen led Ianto confidently through the trees.

"This was one of the first regular spots," he said. "There's six of them here every night now."

"But why would they come out during the day?"

"I don't know," grumbled Owen. "But I don't appreciate it."

The path turned and wove it's way through the undergrowth until Owen stopped. Ianto almost bumped into him.

"There it is," he said. The weevil was crouched low, moaning, and only just outside the sewer entrance. It didn't even seem to notice Owen's presence. Ianto glanced around -no one else in sight. Good.

Owen moved closer. "Hey you, what the hell are you doing outside during daylight?" he said in a calm and soothing tone. The weevil finally noticed him, and got down on it's knees properly, but didn't stop moaning. Owen glanced back at Ianto. "This is weird." Ianto just watched.

"Come on, time to get back up and get home," said Owen, moving closer. Normally his movement encouraged the weevils to get up and back away, but this one made no effort to rise. The moaning grew quieter, and the weevil swayed as though it had lost it's balance. Then it collapsed.

Owen swore. "What the hell!" He quickly moved to the alien's side and felt for a pulse. Then he put his hand over it's mouth to check it's breathing -no matter how dead already he was, Owen wasn't going to risk putting his head there. The alien was still. Not breathing, no pulse.

"It's dead," said Owen in surprise. Ianto moved up beside him.

"It just keeled over, and died?" he asked.

"Yeah." Owen frowned. "That's not good. I don't remember weevils ever being sick before, do you?"

"No."

"Let's get it back to the hub."

* * *

"I've seen this one before," said Owen, standing over the weevil's body in the autopsy bay. "It was one of the first to start emerging every night."

Jack leaned heavily on the railing, looking down. Ianto came over to stand beside him.

"So why is it dead?" Jack asked.

"Well I don't know," said Owen sarcastically. "Maybe if you'll let me get on with the autopsy, I'll be able to find out."

"It's your break time. You should go do something else for two hours."

"No, you said this was the time when I could do whatever I want and not be disturbed. This is what I'm going to do."

Jack gave a small, amused smile. "If that's what you want." He straightened up and walked away.

"I'll, ah, go back to finding what I can in the archives for you, if you'd like," said Ianto.

"Yeah, and add in anything about sick weevils, too."

"Sure."


	7. Chapter 7

Some days later, Gwen stood in a very nice bedroom. Someone must have been earning well to buy this entire suite, she thought. The dresser, wardrobe and beside tables were of the same high-quality timber and stain as the bedhead. The quilt on the double bed had a pattern of panels in dark red and cream, with curtains chosen to match. The walls were a soft off-white, giving the whole thing a muted, homely feel. The kind of style Gwen would love to have herself, if only she could afford to buy a whole new suite of furniture. She had always been a fan of polished floorboards too. Unfortunately, these floorboards were now stained with blood, but at least that colour would match the quilt too. Gwen looked over the woman's body whilst Tosh pulled out her PDA and scanned the area.

"Stabbed multiple times in the chest, murder weapon appears to be the knife that's lying right next to her," she commented.

"No sign of rift energy in the room or the rest of the house." Tosh moved closer and ran the scans over the woman, then the knife. "And nothing on the body or weapon either. No rift energy trail, no alien bio signs. Why are we here again?"

"The guy who called the police reported seeing a small grey humanoid with eyes on stalks run out of the room."

"Had he been smoking something?" asked Tosh, exasperated. "There's nothing here. And the bloody handprint on the knife handle looks human enough."

Gwen had to agree. They were tired and stressed and a false alarm was the last thing they needed. They left the house and blinked in the sunlight. It was a nice area, all homes with tidy yards and neat streets. A small crowd of nosy neighbours stood gossiping at the police tape which cordoned off the victim's home. Gwen and Tosh made their way over to the waiting police team and advised Detective Swanson that it wasn't one of theirs. Swanson looked surprised.

"You mean, I get my investigation back? Wonders never cease. I thought you lot would take over any investigation just to get us offside."

"We don't have the time or energy to waste on pettiness, Detective," said Toshiko crankily. She stalked back to the SUV. Swanson watched her go, then looked more closely at Gwen again. They did look tired, she realised. And of course, only the two women had come, not the whole carload of Torchwood she'd been expecting. She wondered what the enigmatic Captain and his boys were busy with.

"What about that report then?" she asked.

"Your informant was either lying, or hallucinating," said Gwen. "Up to you to figure out which. From everything we can see, this is a perfectly normal homicide case."

"Right, thanks," Swanson replied. Gwen nodded and moved away. Behind her she heard Swanson clap her hands and address her team. "You heard her, we have a case to solve. Get moving!"

Gwen noticed her old partner Andy standing by the police tape, fending off the gossiping neighbours. She glanced over to where Tosh was waiting in the SUV, but decided it was worth a quick moment.

"Andy." She nodded her head to the side when Andy looked over, and he obediently followed her a few metres, to where they were out of earshot. "You know how Torchwood usually just turns up any time something involves us?" she said quietly.

"Yeah, turn up, push us little people out, I know."

Gwen resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "We have equipment that tells when something's going on, that's how we know to be there, right?"

Andy nodded. "Figured something like that. Some of the blokes reckon you just listen in on our scanners, but sometimes you lot are there before anyone calls us out."

"Right, well at the moment, our equipment's malfunctioning. We can't always tell when we're needed. Do us a favour: any time you hear of an incident that doesn't seem quite right, or that is obviously weird, give us a call, yeah?"

Andy looked torn. "You mean, make myself enemies throughout the shop? I can't do that, Gwen. The boys'll never forgive me if they think I'm working with Torchwood."

"Please Andy? For me?" she pleaded. "Look, you don't have to call -send us a text, a few words on what's wrong, with an address. That way no one needs to know you've done it." Andy sighed, and wished he had the strength to stand up to Gwen.

"Alright. Any spooky-dos, I'll let you know."

Gwen grinned. "Thanks Andy. I owe you one." She turned and walked back to the SUV.

Andy sighed. "Yeah Gwen. You really do."

* * *

Later that day, Gwen was doing the afternoon snack run. Torchwood instilled in it's employees an appreciation for getting regular, filling meals while they could. That meant breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner. And for those awake through the night, supper and pre-breakfast were now on the timetable too.

Gwen ducked into the cafe and checked what was in the display cabinet today. Cakes, sweet breads, treats. She loved that this job kept her active -there wasn't much chance of putting on weight even with their fast food diets. She ordered a selection to take back to the hub.

"Gwen? Oh my god, we have been trying to get on to you for ages!" A familiar voice behind her made her cringe. She plastered on a smile, and turned to see both her bridesmaids.

"Megan? And Trina? Fancy seeing you here! How've you both been?" The girls hugged her enthusiastically.

"Have you got the photos yet?" asked Trina. Gwen laughed and had to bite her lip to keep it from turning into a sob. She was so tired of hearing that question.

"No, not yet. Soon," she promised.

"Oh Gwen, there's someone I want you to meet," said Megan. She turned to a man behind her. "This, is my new boyfriend, Rye."

"Hi, good to meet you," the man said, stepping forward and offering his hand. He had a familiar accent and a cheeky grin. He was definitely handsome, in a slightly older, rugged sort of way, Gwen thought.

"Hi yourself," she said, smiling. "Where's that accent from then? America?"

"Got it in one," he grinned. Megan took his hand and pulled him back possessively. He just laughed and put his arm around her. Gwen turned back to the counter where her order was ready.

"Sorry, but I've got to get back to work," she said to her girlfriends apologetically. "I promise to call as soon as I get the photos, ok? Nice to meet you Rye."

* * *

Ianto was bored. Tosh had just arrived at the hub, and Gwen had headed home. It was five days since they'd started the roster, and it seemed to be working well. They'd had regular call-outs for various occasions: three times when rift activity had been picked up, though the size and type of the rift event had been wrong every time. One time when a call to the emergency line had reported a little grey alien had stabbed someone -Ianto had been asleep when Gwen and Tosh went out to handle that. And twice when Ianto had been listening in on the police scanner, and heard reports of unusual activity. One had been a false alarm, but the other had involved some teenagers who had found some rift debris.

Six call-outs in five days, and two had been false alarms. Not a particularly good track record, Ianto thought, but it's not as though they had much choice. They had to investigate everything, or risk missing something big until it was too late.

In between call-outs, he'd had plenty of time to finish going through the weevil records in the archives. There had been nothing to see, much to Owen's disappointment. No records of weevils appearing in groups -except when they had first appeared out of the rift. No records of them repeatedly emerging from the sewers, night after night after night. And no records of weevils ever showing signs of illness. Ianto wasn't sure if some of Torchwood's previous employees would have bothered to notice that sort of thing though.

He roused himself and got to his feet, deciding it was time for the first coffee round of Gwen's shift. They'd all quickly adapted to referring to the times of day according to whose shift it was -or rather, who's shift it wasn't. The overnight shift, therefore, was known as Gwen's shift.

He took Tosh's coffee to her, then headed into Jack's office. Jack looked up from the paperwork he had been working on and grinned at Ianto. A quick glance down told Ianto he hadn't really been making any progress on the reports in front of him.

"Hey, how's my wonderful Welshman?"

Ianto tried not to blush at Jack calling him 'his' Welshman. "Your coffee."

"Thank you."

"And I'm fine, thank you." Ianto perched in his usual place on the desk beside Jack. "Need help with any of that?"

"Yeah, can you do all of it for me?"

"I'm sure that's not allowed," he smiled.

"But I know you can forge my signature perfectly well," Jack grinned. "And then we'd have more time for other things.." He put his hand comfortably on Ianto's thigh.

"Jack. Those reports are considered important for a reason. You need to know what's in them."

"I know," he sighed. "They're just so boring. Especially at this time of night. I'd rather be out and doing something." Jack thought longingly of standing on a rooftop somewhere in the city. But he knew the team needed him here in case anything happened.

Jack's wishes were granted a moment later though, when Owen stuck his head in the door.

"You two busy?" Seeing they were just talking, he walked into the office properly. "Good. I want you both to come weevil hunting tonight."

"Tired of being alone?" leered Jack.

"Funny. No, I want to bring one in. A living breathing specimen to compare to our dead friend. And to compare to Janet. She's been in the cells for a long time before this started, so if something's making them sick, she should be clean."

"Alright, we'll take the SUV then," said Jack. They trailed out past Tosh.

"We're helping the dead man bring home a girlfriend," Jack said as they passed her.

"Oi!" yelled Owen over his shoulder. Tosh raised her eyebrows in query.

"We're helping Owen bring in a weevil," Ianto translated. "We'll be on the comms if anything comes in."

"Sure," Tosh nodded.

* * *

Owen wasn't sure how hard it was going to be to separate a single weevil from one of the groups, but it proved easier than he thought, aided by the fact that he could walk amongst them without fear of attack. The weevils all cowered when he was up close and there hadn't been any signs of aggression from these weevil groups anyway.

He decided Bute Park was the easiest of the regular locations to get one from. They arrived before any weevil alerts had come up, and Owen led Jack and Ianto down through the trees where he and Ianto had encountered the dying weevil a few days ago. They didn't have to wait long before they saw the first weevil emerge. It moved hesitantly, moaning as though it didn't want to leave the sewers. Eventually it was fully in the open, and it stopped moaning and just stood there. Another weevil followed. This one stayed crouched down when it had emerged, and continued to moan. The men watched from a short distance away as three more followed. They ended up with three standing, and two crouched, looking like they'd been arranged like a group photo.

Two minutes after the last one appeared, Owen motioned to Jack and Ianto.

"There were six before, and one of those is our dead dude, so I'd say this is all we're getting tonight."

Jack nodded. "Is it just me, or did they look like they were being forced to come out here."

Owen smirked. "Didn't I say some time ago, that they seemed grateful when I made them go back into the sewers?"

"But then, who -or what -is forcing them out each night?" asked Ianto.

"No idea," said Jack. "But we'd better find out so we can put an end to it."

"For now, let's just get one to take home," hissed Owen. "You ready?" Jack and Ianto nodded, holding up weevil spray and black bags. Owen moved into the open and called out to get the weevils' attention. Within moments they were all on their knees in deference to their 'king'. Owen sighed. He might have had a big ego once upon a time, but being King of the Weevils wasn't a title he took any pleasure in.

He moved closer and two of the weevils who had been standing quickly moved to re-enter the sewer. Owen quickly moved to block the way from the others. To his horror, the two weevils that had been crouching collapsed within moments of each other. Which left only one. He spoke to it gently, trying to keep it calm, although he could see it was terrified. Jack and Ianto came forward and subdued it, placing a bag over it's head, and it calmed considerably. Owen it left it to them and went to check the two fallen weevils. Both dead. Ianto came up beside him.

"We can't leave the bodies."

"It's worse than that," said Owen. "If they're dead due to some unknown illness, it could be contagious to humans." He stood up. "Guess we're taking three home with us."

"Are we at risk then? If we're handling the bodies?" asked Ianto.

"Possibly. Probably. Well, actually, _you_ might be. I'm already dead. And Jack doesn't seem to get sick."

"Great," Ianto muttered.


	8. Chapter 8

The next night when the rift alarm sounded, Owen was already on his weevil rounds for the night. Gwen was due to go home in a bit over an hour, so Jack & Ianto headed out while she stayed at the hub to direct them. Tosh could take over when she got in.

Jack jumped in the drivers seat of the SUV and Ianto climbed in beside him. They headed out, Gwen giving them directions to the northern part of Cardiff.

"What story is the monitor spinning us tonight, Gwen?" asked Jack.

"_Medium size object, no bio signs._"

"Let's go see how much truth is in it, eh?"

Ianto's mobile started ringing as Jack drove. Ianto pulled it out of his pocket and checked the caller, and rejected the call. A moment later, it rang again. Ianto hung up again.

"Wouldn't it be easier just to answer it?" Jack asked. Ianto didn't respond, but when the phone rang for a third time, he answered it.

"What?" he asked tersely. Jack listened to half the conversation. "No, I can't. ...Because I can't, I'm working. ...Look, I've got to go, I can't talk right now. ...No, I'm not. ...Please don't, it won't make any difference, really. ...No, of course I'm not! Don't be-" Ianto pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at it. The caller had hung up. He sighed.

"Everything ok?" asked Jack in concern.

"You told me to answer it," said Ianto bitterly. "Don't expect me to thank you." Jack winced. How was he supposed to have known?

"If someone's harassing you, we can deal with.." Jack began.

"It's my sister," Ianto snapped.

"Oh." Jack decided opening his mouth wasn't working for him right now, and shut it instead.

He was thankful when they pulled up at the address a minute later. It was a residential street. Jack disliked these ones -too much risk of civilians getting hurt or seeing something they shouldn't. Ianto jumped out and tapped his comms, all business.

"Where to from here, Gwen?"

"_The other side of the street from where you are -I've got you on CCTV. Rift monitor is indicating somewhere beside Number 32._"

Ianto turned on the portable monitor, and pointed it in the direction Gwen had indicated. Nothing. What a surprise. He turned around slowly, and the monitor indicated rift activity further down the street. He signalled to Jack and they jogged down the road. About 200 feet further down, they found it: a panel of metal, curved into a specific shape near one end. It was painted and polished red on one side.

"This is it?" asked Jack.

"Absolutely covered in rift energy," said Ianto, still looking at the scanner.

"If only they were all this easy." Jack pulled out a pair of gloves to pick it up, and they walked back to the SUV.

"_So what is it_?" came Gwen's voice.

"Looks like a metal panel off something. Could be a spaceship, or a car, or some sort of machinery. Could be off just about anything really."

"Anything that might be painted red and polished nicely," Ianto pointed out.

"Alright, so a vehicle of some sort is most likely," agreed Jack. "Standard rift debris, in any case. And most importantly, it's the right size."

"_Sorry? Right size for what?_"

"This is the first time in a fortnight that the rift monitor has told us the correct size of an object," said Jack. "It told us medium, and this is within the definition of medium-sized."

"It still got the location wrong though," sighed Ianto.

"Small mercies, Ianto. Small mercies."

* * *

When they got back to the hub, Ianto made another round of coffees, more for the purpose of taking his mind off things than for the caffeine benefit. Not that anyone else minded. Tosh had replaced Gwen now and was overjoyed to hear that the Rift Monitor had been accurate on the size of the object earlier. Ianto took Jack's mug into his office, noticing that Owen wasn't in the autopsy bay as he passed. He looked around as he went back to his workstation to fetch his own drink, and spotted movement in the greenhouse.

A moment later, he had climbed the spiral staircase beside his workstation and pushed through the doors of the greenhouse. The room doubled as a lab, and it was for this purpose that Owen was using it now. He was surrounded by petri dishes and microscope slides, one of which he was studying under the microscope as Ianto entered.

"What are we looking at?" Ianto asked.

"Well," Owen began. "I can tell you the weevils are definitely sick."

"What is it, the flu?" joked Ianto.

Owen raised his head to stare at him. "Yes, actually." He looked slightly disconcerted. "I hate it when people do that."

"Sorry," said Ianto. Owen put down the slide, and picked up another, sliding it under the light of the microscope. "So, they've actually got the actual influenza virus?" Ianto asked.

"Looks like it," Owen muttered. "Or some variety of it, anyway. But I can't quite figure it out. There's something wrong about it. Influenza has probably swept through Cardiff fifty times since the weevils got here, and living in the sewers, they would have been exposed to it every time. So why would they catch it now if they've never caught it before?"

"Maybe they have," Ianto suggested. "Maybe this is just a particularly bad strain."

"No, they haven't," said Owen. He picked up another slide and slid it into the microscope. Then he attached some cables to the equipment and turned on a monitor on the wall. The screen lit up with a display of a magnified blood sample. "This, is a microscopic view of the blood from one of the dead weevils. See this, and this," he pointed out some roundish shapes on the screen. "These are the flu virus cells. This," he switched to another image, "is Janet's blood. No flu virus cells at all. Now if the weevils had ever caught influenza before, there would be antibodies in Janet's blood already. But there's not."

"And if they've never caught it before -nor anything else like it -they'll have very little defence against it," concluded Ianto.

"Exactly. So the question is, where did it come from and why did they catch it?"

"And can humans catch it from the weevils?" Ianto added.

"I'm not sure," said Owen. He tilted his head to look at Ianto. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired, lethargic, energy-less. Moody and irritable. In need of more sleep," he replied.

"All classic symptoms of influenza."

"All classic symptoms of stress, sleep deprivation and Annoying Co-workers Syndrome, too," Ianto rejoined. "Do you have a serious answer?"

Owen thought about it. "I would guess at yes, because it looks to be very similar to other types of human influenza, which is how I was able to narrow it down so quickly. But I could be wrong."

"I'll look up the NHS records, see if there's been any unusual human cases recently."

Owen nodded and leant back down at the microscope. Ianto headed downstairs and sat down at his workstation. Searching the NHS database took a while, since influenza cases cropped up all the time. It took Ianto a long while to gather all the information, and then he had only started to go through them when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Hard at work, I see," said Jack. He leant down to growl in Ianto's ear. "Just how I like you."

Ianto blushed. Jack could turn the most common phrases into innuendo. Jack took his elbow and pulled him up so Ianto was standing in his arms.

"You ok?" Jack asked, looking concerned.

Ianto smiled. "Of course. Tired and stressed, but definitely ok."

Jack checked his watch. "Nearly your bedtime -I'm pretty sure we'll cope if you crash a few minutes early. Sound good?"

"Sure." Ianto could use the extra sleep. Being awake at odd hours was normal for Torchwood, but they were usually able to sleep in longer than usual to make up for it. That wasn't happening again in the foreseeable future, so Ianto would take whatever he could get.

* * *

"Jack!" The yell echoed loudly across the hub. Jack was glad he'd closed the cover on the manhole leading into his bunker -it was practically soundproof when sealed. Ianto's sleep wouldn't be disturbed.

He pulled himself up from his desk and emerged into the central room of the hub. Owen was leaning over the balcony railing beside the door to the greenhouse/lab. He motioned for Jack to join him. "You better come see this." Jack glanced at Gwen and Tosh, who were sitting on the sofa sharing some raisin toast for pre-breakfast, since it was that hour of the morning when nobody wanted to work. Well, nobody but Owen, it seemed. He shrugged, and they went back to their conversation.

Jack made his way up to the greenhouse and pushed open the door. Owen was arranging views of two microscope slides on the monitor.

"You don't need to bother with that," commented Jack. "Biology was never my strong point. Whatever it is, you can just tell me."

"This is for me as much as you," murmured Owen, still absorbed in his task. He finished and straightened. "Right. This here, is the most common strain of human influenza. The one next to it, is what the weevils have. What do you notice?"

"The weevils have the flu?" asked Jack in confusion.

"Yeah, didn't Ianto mention it?"

"No. Are you sure? They don't seem to have runny noses or anything?"

Owen made a face at that mental image. "They have influenza, but their physiology is different to ours, so the symptoms manifest differently. For them it seems to be mainly exhaustion and probably headaches. Anyway, it's a new strain. So look at the two slides and tell me what you see?"

"Honestly, I failed biology multiple times, and that was a long time ago. I can't tell anything helpful from these pictures."

"Come on Jack, even you should be able to pick this. I wouldn't be asking otherwise." Owen fixed him with a look and Jack sighed and compared the two images. After a minute he shrugged, clearly feeling foolish.

"Only thing I could say, is that the weevil's sample looks.. neater. More organised."

"Yes! Two points to the old man!" Owen grinned.

Jack looked at him quizzically. "I don't get it."

"The human sample is a naturally evolved virus. It's a little bit random, because that's how nature is."

Jack caught on. "The weevil flu didn't evolve... it was made?"

"Yep. Man-made virus. Well, somebody-made, anyway. I don't think we should make any assumptions about who's responsible at this point. The point is, this strain of influenza was developed especially to infect the weevils, and having never caught any strain before, they've got almost no defence against it."

"But why would someone want to make the weevils sick?"

Owen shrugged. "Beats me. That's your department."

Jack frowned as he thought about it, but he couldn't immediately think of any way someone could benefit from making the weevils sick. Unless some highly-intelligent foe from their homeworld had followed them through the rift, nearly 60 years late, but that didn't seem likely.

"There's more," said Owen, interrupting his thoughts. "I think I've figured out why they're emerging from the sewers all the time."

That got Jack's attention. "Oh?"

"Remember they live in family groups? A common trait in primitive cultures is to expel any member of a village or society that gets sick. In a society that has no form of medicine, preventing illness from being passed on is the only way to ensure survival."

"So they're literally kicking out anyone who shows any sign of being sick. No wonder they looked like they were being forced to leave."

"And why they were grateful when I made them return. In fact, I would hazard a guess that my presence is the only reason they aren't kicked out again immediately. My word probably outweighs theirs."

Jack nodded. "Nice work, O Weevil King. So, weevil medicine?"

"I'll get started on an antidote now, but it could take a while to develop. Also, we don't know how they got infected in the first place. Given how quickly it seemed to spread, I'd say there was more than one contamination point. We'll need to find them."

"Right. I'll see if the girls fancy a trip underground."

* * *

Unsurprisingly, Gwen and Toshiko were not all that keen on checking out the sewers, but Jack didn't give them a lot of choice. Owen ended up deciding to accompany them too, saying he would have a better chance of creating an antidote once he knew exactly how they'd been infected in the first place.

They decided on returning to Bute Park again. The sewer entrance there was large and would be easy for them to access, plus it was fairly well concealed. The weevils there had also been one of the first groups to start appearing regularly, suggesting that it was one of the first infection points.

"Nobody thought to bring nose plugs at all, did they?" asked Gwen, after climbing down into the dim concrete tunnel. "Or clothes pegs? Clips of any sort?"

Owen shrugged. "I can't smell anything."

"You can't smell anything at all," replied Tosh. "It doesn't help us much." She screwed up her face in agreement with Gwen.

Jack shone his torch around. The sewer entrance was located at a T-intersection in the pipes, so they had three directions to choose from.

"Right, we'll split up," he said. "Gwen and Owen, go that way, Tosh and I will head down this one. Use this to mark the way back," he said, handing Gwen a piece of chalk. "If you find anything odd, don't touch it without gloves -not even you Owen. Just because you can't catch a virus doesn't mean we need you becoming contaminated and making someone else sick."

"Yes, alright Captain, I _am_ the doctor here, remember?" Owen grumbled. They set off in different directions, torches searching the floors.

Jack and Toshiko walked along the side of the tunnel, avoiding the murky water in the middle. Tosh shone her torch at the ground, sweeping back and forth looking for any object that seemed out of place. There was plenty of rubbish scattered along -debris left behind when the water level dropped after rain. They were lucky actually -they'd had three days straight without rain, almost unheard of in Cardiff. Not that it had been sunny, or warm, but at least it hadn't been wet. The water level was lower than it might have been.

Tosh was too busy looking around to notice the puddle right in front of her, and she splashed into it, ankle deep, and nearly stumbled.

"Careful! You alright?" Jack caught her elbow and steadied her.

"Ugh," she groaned, lifting her foot back out. "Yeah, fine. Glad I changed into old trainers before we came out here though."

Jack chuckled. The proceeded forward again, Tosh making sure to check what was in front of her more often. They continued in silence for a few minutes, each focussed on checking every pile of dirt and rubbish for signs it shouldn't be there. Tosh paused.

"Jack?"

"Mmm?"

"Where are the weevils?"

Jack stopped. They'd passed a number of smaller pipes leading into the large one they were walking through, but not once had they heard or seen any sign of weevils.

"I'm not sure," he said. "Owen says they live in family groups; they probably have a particular area they gather in during the day."

Tosh nodded; that made sense. They kept going.

* * *

Gwen and Owen were having a much harder time of it. The tunnel they had headed down had ended fairly quickly -they were working their way upstream and it had split into smaller pipes. They were big enough to walk through still, although they had to duck down and remain bent over. They were making more frequent use of their chalk too, as they constantly climbed out of one pipe and turned to enter another.

"Why did we have to come this way again?" Gwen complained. The floor of the pipes were slippery, and when she stuck out a hand to steady herself, the sides were wet too. Gross.

"As much as I wish it wasn't true," said Owen, "we're actually more likely to find something up this way."

"Why's that?"

"Because the virus would wash downstream and spread further. No point putting it near the end of the river."

"Oh." Gwen had to admit it made sense. Though she couldn't imagine why anyone would want to make the weevils sick in the first place. They continued to climb through pipes of varying sizes, Gwen carefully drawing arrows with her chalk each time they left a pipe and entered a new one.

After what felt like hours, but was actually only about twenty minutes, Owen spotted something. "Gwen."

She turned and pointed her torch where his was. It was a large plastic soft drink bottle, dirty and damaged like any other piece of rubbish down here. But this one was hanging against the wall, suspended with fishing line from a small pipe running along the ceiling. Gwen pulled out an evidence bag whilst Owen snapped on a pair of latex gloves and pulled out his pocket knife. She pulled the bag up and over the bottle, and Owen cut the line. Holding it up, they could see a small hole had been punched through the bottom of the bottle.

"Fill it with contaminated liquid and let it drip into the sewers," said Owen. "Tidy." He started to put his hand to his ear to activate his comms, but Jack's strained voice came through before he could.

"_Owen? If you're not busy with something _really _important, Tosh and I would appreciate your royal presence about now_."


	9. Chapter 9

Gwen and Owen hurried back as quickly as they could. Owen was relieved to find Gwen's chalk marks were consistent and reliable, and they were back at the original T-intersection in far less time than it had taken them to find the bottle. He handed the evidence bag to her.

"You wait here," he said. "Actually, better yet, get up the ladder and wait outside. You'll be safe there."

"But I could.."

"Gwen!" Owen sighed internally. Why did she always pick the worst moments to argue? "I can handle any number of weevils, but the fewer people I have to protect at the same time, the easier it'll be. You won't be able to help, so stay here and stay safe!" He turned and jogged down the tunnel where Tosh and Jack had disappeared before Gwen had a chance to argue any further. When he glanced back, he was relieved to see her climbing the ladder. He hit his comms.

"You two ok? Where am I going?"

"_Stick to the main tunnel, eventually you'll hit another T-intersection. Head upstream from there. Tosh is fine, and I'll survive_."

Owen rolled his eyes as he jogged down the concrete tunnel. In another few minutes he found the intersection and headed the way Jack had indicated.

"How far upstream, and what am I going to find?"

Tosh responded, sounding shaky. "_Not very far. The tunnel widens out into a room where several large tunnels meet. The weevils were sleeping here_." She paused, then it all came out in a miserable rush. "_It was my fault, I tripped and shrieked and woke them and they came for me and_-"

"Tosh. Listen to me. You know Jack will survive, and I'm sure he knows it was an accident." Owen slowed down to a walk as he noticed a small light in the distance. "Flash your torch over at the tunnel you came through." The light in the distance moved. "Good, I'm nearly there."

Owen listened as Tosh took a deep breath and calmed herself. She had been in difficult situations plenty of times, she could handle this. It was just the tiredness, and the stress, and the guilt -the guilt especially -he was pretty sure she'd never directly caused one of Jack's deaths before. It was a horrible feeling, and Owen could sympathise.

He arrived at the junction and looked across the room. There were -he did a quick count -twelve weevils in the room. Several in one corner were crouched down, but the rest were on their feet and looking up into one corner, snarling and growling. Following their gaze with his torch, Owen saw a ladder heading up to a much smaller pipe. The soles of two shoes were visible in the end of the tunnel. Jack's boots. And a hand holding a torch, shining out of the pipe.

"You're up there? I can't believe Jack fitted in that pipe." There was a bit of movement, and Tosh's head appeared leaning over Jack's feet.

"It was a bit of a squeeze," she admitted. "But they couldn't get in here." She looked down at the small sea of weevil faces looking up at her. "Will you be able to get us past them?"

"Easily," said Owen, sounding more confident than he felt. He was actually a bit unsure -this was the weevils' home after all, and they hadn't bowed to his presence yet, though he was only 10 feet or so away. But he was certain that between him and Jack, they'd get Toshiko out safely. He nodded at her. "Go back and wait for him to wake up. I won't try anything until then."

Owen wandered back down the tunnel a way, not wanting to disturb the weevils with his presence until he had to. It wasn't a long wait. A few minutes later he heard Jack's gasp over Tosh's comms, and then Tosh's murmuring as she calmed him and reminded him where they were. Jack got straight down to business.

"Owen, you there?"

"Just the other side of the room, Captain."

"What do you want us to do?"

Owen smiled to himself. For a man who was generally seen as an arrogant self-styled leader, Jack was quick to defer to someone else when appropriate.

"Stay where you are for the moment. When I say so, Jack come down first, Tosh second." Owen stepped into the junction room again. He gave a low whistle to attract the attention of the weevils. They hadn't moved whilst he'd been gone, but they turned towards him now. Owen held his breath for a moment, but then the weevils were lowering themselves to the ground in deference to him, and he sighed in relief.

"Now, Jack," he said quietly, even as the weevils were in the process of getting to their knees. He had never waited to see how long they would stay like that -usually, he was busy getting them up and moving again. He hoped they would remain crouched until he moved away, but there was no way of knowing.

He looked up to see Jack had turned onto his stomach and was finding the ladder with his feet. "Tosh, be ready to start down the ladder before Jack's on the ground." Tosh moved to the entrance of the pipe and nodded at him. She watched Jack's descent, and as soon as there was room, she started to get down herself.

Owen walked to the centre of the room. Those closest to him huddled further down. Those near the ladder growled as Jack stepped off, but they didn't get up.

"As soon as Tosh is down, walk to me and then keep going," Owen murmured. "I'll be right behind you." He kept his eyes on the weevils. More of them were shifting about and growling, and Owen hissed at them. They immediately cowered and quieted again. Tosh reached the bottom and Jack immediately started her moving across the room, staying close behind her protectively. They passed Owen, and he backed away towards the tunnel they had entered through. The weevils at the back started to rise as he got further away.

Owen turned to Jack and Tosh. "Run," he muttered, and they didn't need telling twice. Owen was again thankful that the going was easier here than it had been at his and Gwen's end. Their torches danced along the floor as they ran. Owen heard some growls and hisses behind him, but when he turned to check at the the first turn, there was no pursuit. He called out to Jack and Tosh, and they slowed to a halt.

"Thank you, Owen," said Tosh, panting.

"All in a day's work," he smiled at her. He watched as she started walking again. She was limping. "Hold on there Tosh; what's wrong?"

"Must have twisted my ankle when I tripped," she replied with a wince. "Adrenaline's wearing off -it's starting to hurt now."

Owen examined her ankle but there was only a little swelling and the pain wasn't severe. "Just a minor sprain," he deduced. "Take it easy for a few days." He tapped his comms. "Gwen, we're on our way back."

"_Oh thank god, I was worried sick. Are they ok? Anyone hurt?_"

Jack and Toshiko smiled at her concern. Tosh tapped her ear. "We're fine Gwen. We'll be there in a minute."

* * *

Gwen was never happier than when she got the chance to indulge in some good old-fashioned police work. It was what she had trained for after all, and what she had expected to be doing for many years of her life. And while yes, her police training -and police contacts -often came in handy during her work at Torchwood, it wasn't quite the same.

Which is why, much to the amusement of the rest of the team, she was humming happily as dusted the soft drink bottle for fingerprints. Owen took some swabs from the inside of the bottle and went to test them in his lab. Gwen was occupying the autopsy bay. She finished dusting the fine powder all over.

"A-ha!" she exclaimed, holding the bottle up to the light.

"Got something?" asked Toshiko, observing the process with a smile.

"Beautifully clear prints," Gwen replied. She grabbed some of the transparent tape and smoothly pressed it over one of them, then sealed it and handed it to Tosh. Rinse and repeat. Within a few minutes she had seven clear prints on five pieces of tape.

"There's more here, but those are the clearest. I don't think we need to worry about the rest. Whoever did this, they weren't very careful."

"Could they be from whoever bought the drink in the first place?" asked Tosh. "It might not be the same person."

"True," said Gwen. "But I reckon whoever refilled the bottle with virus-infested liquid would have had to handle the bottle a fair bit in the process. And then some more when hanging it in the sewer. If they were wearing gloves, they would have smudged the original prints. Therefore, since we have clear prints.."

"They must belong to the last person who touched the bottle, our culprit. Alright, I'll run these through the system," said Tosh, turning back to her own workstation. Gwen packed up the fingerprinting kit and resealed the bottle in it's evidence bag. Peeling off the latex gloves, she was about to go see what Toshiko had found when she heard her mobile ringing from beside her workstation.

"Blast it!" She dashed up the stairs and grabbed it just before message bank took the call. "Hello? Oh hi Mam, how's things?" She paused, then sighed. "No Mam, we haven't met up with the photographer yet. ...Yes, but I had to cancel because something came up at work. ..Of course it was important. Look, Mam, I really have to go -we're in the middle of running fingerprints for a case we're on -yes, very important. Alright. I will. Love you." She hung up and headed for Toshiko's workstation.

"Anything?"

Toshiko looked at Gwen apologetically, and her heart sank. "Sorry, there's nothing. The computer agrees they are ideal prints for matching -which means they're human, or convincingly similar. But there's no match on any databases. I've tried the local Welsh database, the main UK database, and the Criminal Records Bureau. Nobody has these prints on file."

"Could we try internationally?" Gwen was desperately hopeful. Surely some good would come out of this? How could they be so lucky as to get more than a full set of fingerprints, and then be so unlucky as to not find a match for them?

"I can try, but I would be surprised if someone's come from overseas just to make our weevils ill."

"We still don't have any clues what their motives might be," Gwen pointed out. "Try it anyway? For me?"

Tosh laughed lightly. "Sure, Gwen. For you. It'll take a bit longer though -I'll set it running and come back to it later."

"Ok."

* * *

A few hours and a morning tea later, they checked the results. This time they weren't taken by surprise when there were no matches found. Gwen sighed.

"Such a shame. It would have been such a big help. If we could get a name, we could find the person, and then we could find out _why _for goodness sake.."

And that was really the question wasn't it, Tosh thought. We know the what, can understand the how, and discover the where -but _who _and _why _were still complete mysteries.

There was still that other mystery too. The mystery of why the rift activity monitor and/or it's associated mathematics would suddenly _stop _working, when they had worked well -if not quite perfectly -since it was installed in 1941. Toshiko had been poring over the equations in detail since it first started to play up, and everything looked perfect. Nothing had been changed since she finished developing the equations for opening the rift, over a year ago. The rift prediction equations had been provided with the equipment in the first place -from a UNIT mathematician -and had been revised a few times over the last 67 years, the last time being by Toshiko herself in her first year at Torchwood.

She sighed -and didn't realise how loud she had done so until Gwen put a comforting hand on her arm.

"Still worrying over the rift predictor? You need to stop thinking about it for a bit. It's not doing any good."

"I know," said Tosh with a weak smile. "But we can't keep going like this -we need to get it fixed so we can all go back to getting enough sleep."

"I agree, but I think if something was wrong with the equations, you would have found it by now. Whatever it is, it's outside of your control. So try and leave it be for a while. I'm sure we'll sort it out in the end."

They were interrupted by Owen, announcing to the hub in general, that it was now his shift and he was not to be interrupted for the next two hours. They watched as he went back into the lab, then Gwen patted Toshiko's arm one more time and headed back to her own workstation. Toshiko looked around. If it was Owen's shift then Jack's had just finished -and now that she thought about it, Ianto should have been up two hours ago, but she hadn't seen him at all.

Wandering into Jack's office, she noticed the manhole cover for the bunker was off. She hesitated, but she couldn't hear anything, and curiosity got the better of her. She crept forward and looked down. She was surprised to realise it looked straight down onto Jack's bed, and was immediately taken by how cute the Captain and Ianto looked together. Jack was laying on his back, awake, and Ianto was on his side cuddled up to him. Jack smiled at Toshiko and put a finger to his lips, indicating she should stay quiet. She grinned at him and moved quietly away. She knew they would get up if they were needed, and they hadn't been able to spend much time alone together lately, so she would let them have this chance.

She went back to her desk and looked at the monitors. Three of the four LCD screens were showing sections of the rift equations. Gwen had said something before -what was it? _Whatever it is, it's outside your control_. She was right, it must be outside their control, or they would have found the problem by now. It was odd though, that the portable monitor was still working. You would think that the portable monitor would be less reliable -although, no doubt Ianto would argue that point.

There was something still bugging her about it though. The activity monitor responded perfectly to all her tests -and it reported that it was working 100%. The checks and tests built into the system hadn't reported any errors. It was almost as if something outside...

That was it!

"Jack!" she cried, leaping from her seat and heading for his office. A brief moment later his head appeared and he climbed out.

"What's the problem?" He was buttoning up his shirt and pulling up his braces. He'd obviously been mostly dressed in bed.

"Oh no -there's no alert," she said, a little guiltily. A moment later when Ianto appeared, she felt even worse. But he'd obviously been prepared to jump up at any given moment too.

"So, what is it then?" asked Jack, slightly amused at her reaction.

"I think I figured it out. Well sort of. Maybe."

"Figured what out?" he asked patiently.

"The rift monitor. It was something Gwen said -she said, whatever it is, it's outside our control."

"And?"

"I think someone's controlling it somehow. Not controlling the rift, or the monitor -but controlling the readings we get from it. Playing with the energy patterns before they are detected by the monitor."

"When we get a big rift event, this outside influence disrupts the signals and modifies them, so when they reach the tower they are only indicating a small event," Jack summarised.

"Exactly. Or vice versa."

"And the portable monitor is exempt because..?"

"Whatever's doing this must be location based. It's got to be here, near the hub. Or in the hub, possibly -we could have brought something in without knowing it would have that effect. Either way, the portable monitor isn't affected because it's not here when we use it."

"Makes a lot of sense," commented Ianto.

"So how do we find it?"

Tosh stopped. She hadn't thought that far ahead. "I don't know yet. I'll get working on it." Jack nodded and she turned to leave the office.

"Oh, and Tosh?" Jack called after her. She turned. "Good work. Genius."

She blushed. "It was Gwen really, if she hadn't said..."

"But she didn't work it out, did she?" Jack smiled like a proud father and Tosh nodded her head in pleased embarrassment before heading out again.

Jack sat on the edge of the desk beside Ianto and put his arm around his shoulders. "Have I ever mentioned how brilliant our Toshiko is?"

"I believe you have, sir, once or twice."

"I should say it more often."


	10. Chapter 10

_A/N: There's some Japanese in this chapter, translated by a friend of mine since I don't speak the language (yeah, I know, unnecessary but I thought it was cool, so there). You don't need to know what it means to understand what's going on -it's explained in story._

* * *

Owen checked the petri dishes again. His break was over and Tosh had gone home, but if things stayed quiet for another hour or so he'd be able to get a sample onto a slide under the microscope and confirm his suspicions. True to Murphy's Law, an alert sounded in the hub, and he cursed under his breath. He shrugged off his lab coat and hung it over a chair.

"Owen!"

He pushed open the lab door and strode onto the balcony. "I heard it, Jack, I'm coming."

"Another daylight one," said Ianto. "I'll come with you."

"Thanks Teaboy. What about you, Gwen? Fancy a walk in the park?"

"I'd rather not. I'm tired enough as it is. Besides, it's not in a park," said Gwen, checking the details on Tosh's screen. "It's behind the old church on Glamorgan Road."

"That's one of the regular spots. What's to bet there'll be more dead?"

* * *

Owen was right, there were two weevils waiting when they arrived, one of which had already died. The other was moaning quietly as it gasped and struggled to breathe. Owen gave it a sedative, and a few minutes later it passed away in it's sleep.

"We're getting quite a collection of them now," said Ianto. "Do you still need to keep the bodies for tests?"

"I'd like to take samples from them all, just to be sure there's only one flu strain going around. But we don't need to keep them after that," Owen replied. He bent to lift the first weevil under the arms.

"I'll check with Jack when we get back, but we can probably start incinerating them." Ianto picked up the feet and together they lifted it into the boot of the SUV. "How's work on an antidote going?"

"Slowly. I've never had to make an antidote from scratch before. And I'm also running tests to see whether it's contagious to humans and how bad it might be. And of course," he huffed as they bent to lift the second body, "I keep getting these interruptions."

They lifted the second body into the boot and Owen climbed back into the drivers seat. Ianto hopped in beside him, looking thoughtful.

"Owen, have you considered using human flu drugs? Even if you need to modify it a bit, surely that would be easier than creating something from scratch. Unless it would harm them, or wouldn't work for some reason?"

Owen looked at him in surprise, and opened and closed his mouth a few times. Eventually he looked back to the front and turned the key in the ignition. Ianto grinned when heard the doctor mutter "Why the hell didn't I think of that?"

* * *

When they got back, Owen ducked out of the hub and returned with a paper bag from the nearest chemist. He disappeared into the lab. Some hours later he emerged again. He clattered down the metal staircase to where Ianto sat at his workstation.

"Ianto, did you find anything on the NHS system?"

Ianto shuffled a large stack of papers. "Lots."

Owen gaped at the size of the pile. "Please tell me those aren't all recent influenza cases."

Ianto glanced down. "These? No, these are letters from UNIT demanding access to various equipment and tech we have in the archives. We get several a week; I just haven't filed them for a while." He put them aside and turned to his monitor. "I've tracked the trends of flu cases in Cardiff in the last few months, and there's hasn't been any sudden increase in the last few weeks. Probably because it's not common for humans and weevils to interact."

Owen glared at him. "Yes, thank you, I think I am well educated in the social habits of weevils. Well, I'm glad to hear the numbers are steady, because I'm certain now that humans can catch it."

Ianto groaned. "If anyone's going to catch it, it'll be me. I've had the most contact with sick weevils out of anyone -out of anyone who can get sick, at least."

"Well, the good news is that you were right -normal flu drugs are effective against it. So if you start to feel sick at all, let me know, I'll get you on the good stuff straight away."

Jack joined them with an empty coffee mug in hand. "Did I hear correctly? This thing is contagious to humans?" He looked worried.

"Yes, but it's no worse than the normal flu. And existing flu drugs are effective against it," Owen assured him. "New strains of flu emerge all the time. If this one gets into the human population, it'll be just one more."

Jack nodded. "OK. So, does that mean you can cure the weevils too?"

"Sure. If I had each of them in a medical bay with a drip and kept them on bed rest for a week." Owen's natural sarcasm reasserted itself. "As it is, no. Not yet. I'll have to develop something stronger and we'll probably have to deliver it in a similar manner to how the virus was distributed in the first place."

Jack nodded. "Speaking of which, we still have to find the rest of them. Whoever did this must have set up several contamination points."

Ianto took Jack's mug from him and set a fresh round of coffee brewing. "If four of us go we can split up and cover more ground. Or pipe."

Jack shook his head. "Not after what happened last time. Any of us can hold our own against one or two weevils in the open, but down there you're dealing with ten or more in an enclosed space. It would be a stupid risk to take."

"So it's up to me then, I suppose," said Owen. "I wouldn't mind that much really, but it'll take a long time by myself, and that's time that could be spent working on a remedy."

"No, we'll both go," said Jack. Ianto was about to protest, but Jack didn't let him. "Because Owen's right, Ianto. It will take too long for him to do it alone, and we need him here, in the lab." After a moment Ianto gave in, and turned back to the coffee machine.

"But I suggest we leave it until tomorrow," said Owen. "The sun will be gone soon, which means they'll be getting more active, and even I don't want to meet a healthy weevil in it's own home when it's properly awake. Plus I'll be busy sending the sick ones home."

"Alright," said Jack. "We'll head out tomorrow morning, rift permitting."

* * *

Owen headed back to the lab to work on a weevil medicine concoction while he could; soon after dark, the weevils would start emerging again and that would be most of his night gone. Ianto searched the archives and eventually pulled out a map of Cardiff's sewer system. He began marking out all the locations of the recurring weevil alerts on the map. Having some idea where the illness was most prevalent would help Jack & Owen narrow down possible areas for searching. There was a lot of data to work with, so it was going to take a while. He interspersed the map-plotting with the occasional round of coffee.

At sunset the first weevil alert came up, so Owen finished what he was doing and headed out for the night.

At 9pm Toshiko arrived and Gwen headed home for some well earned rest. Tosh tapped away at her keyboard, looking intently at the screens in front of her. Ianto sometimes thought she was chained to her workstation by some invisible line, but she seemed happiest there, so who was he to object? She smiled as he placed the new mug of coffee beside her and reached over to remove the previous one. "Thanks Ianto."

"My pleasure." And it was, with Toshiko. She always made an effort to acknowledge him and make him feel appreciated. "Any luck with finding out what's disturbing the rift monitor?"

"Don't really have any way to search yet. Gwen has looked through all the rift objects we picked up in the month before the problems started, but everything seems fine. She's had a look outside too but there's nothing obvious out of place around the water tower. And I've been playing with the portable monitor, see if I can modify it to track down an object interfering with the rift energy particles, but I haven't quite got it working yet. Still need to figure out some of the equations that will enable-"

Tosh's mobile phone rang, taking her by surprise. She reached down and rummaged in her handbag to find it. She peered at the screen.

"Giving out your number to strangers in bars again?" Ianto teased.

"No," smiled Toshiko. She answered it. "_Moshi moshi_."

Ah, Ianto thought. Family. He moved away to tidy the coffee table behind her.

"_Genki dayo, okaasan wa? otousan? ...Mou... Boifurendo inai yo. ...Hontou dayo! Nankai mo itta. ...Amerika-jin_?" Tosh threw a confused glance in the direction of Jack's office. "_Ima, koibito inai yo, okaasan. ...Nani_?" She was shocked, and struggled to find the right words. "_Dare ni mo okaasan no juusho wo oshienakatta wa. ...Kare no namae wa nan datta? Okaasan, kore wa taisetsu dayo! ...Jya, kono hito wa okaasan ni mata denwa kakereba, sugu atashi ni denwa shite kure. Wakatteru okaasan? ...Iya, daijoubu dayo. Ki wo tsukete ne_." She put the phone down, looking troubled.

"That didn't sound good," said Ianto. "Some American introduced himself to your parents as your boyfriend?"

Toshiko looked round at Ianto in surprise. "You speak Japanese?"

"I speak four languages. Though my French isn't very good. But I spent a whole semester in Nagoya on exchange, and loved it." Ianto smiled at the memory.

"You never cease to surprise me, Ianto. You do realise we could have been having secret conversations in front of the others all this time, and driving them insane?"

"That wouldn't be polite." The sparkle in Ianto's eyes belied his words.

"Precisely!" Toshiko turned back to look at the phone on her desk, and her smile faded. "This bothers me though. Some stranger turns up at my parent's apartment on the other side of the world, claiming that he and I are close and that I'd given him the address." She twisted her hands together in worry.

"Did she get a name?"

"'Adam', she thinks. And with only that and an American accent to go off, it could be anyone." She sighed. "Suddenly I feel so far from home."

Ianto walked over and put a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Technology makes the world a smaller place, Tosh, you know that. I'm sure there's something you can do."

Toshiko straightened. "Of course there is. I'm sure my parents' building has CCTV -if I can get access to it, maybe we can get a look at this guy. It'll be a starting point, at least." She started typing at a furious pace. Ianto chuckled and left her to it.

* * *

By the time Gwen returned and Ianto could head off to bed, he had points drawn all across the sewer plans. There were five sewer entrances across the city where there were now six or seven weevils appearing each night. Around those were another eleven locations where two or three weevils would emerge. No wonder Owen was being kept out most of the night now, Ianto thought. That was a lot of weevil alerts to deal with. The good thing was, the smaller ones were all downstream from the major locations, meaning that they could limit their searches to areas upstream of those big ones. It also meant there was only four locations they needed to search, since the Bute Park infection source had already been found.

"Nice work Teaboy," said Owen, appearing at Ianto's shoulder. "That should make it quicker."

"Ready to go?" asked Jack.

"Of course, been looking forward to this for days," Owen snarked.

Jack leaned over to kiss Ianto while Owen rolled his eyes and mimed being sick. "Go to bed. And don't mind Owen, he's just jealous," Jack grinned. Owen snorted and stalked off. Jack folded the sewer plans and followed.

Ianto headed over to Tosh's desk. "Did you find anything on that guy?"

"What guy?" asked Gwen, munching on a bagel.

"Some guy told my parents he was my boyfriend," said Toshiko. "And yes, I got a CCTV image but I don't know him, and he didn't didn't match anyone on our CCTV database."

"What about the source of the rift energy interference?"

"I think I'm just about done with the equations, which means we can head out and start tracking it down soon," Tosh said to Gwen.

"You might want to wait until Jack and Owen get back," said Ianto. "I plan to be asleep very soon and won't be passing on any alerts that come in." Tosh nodded, and Gwen patted Ianto on the back.

"Well go on, off to bed with you then. Rhys is dropping in at lunchtime with some casseroles for us so there'll be something delicious for you to look forward to."

Both Tosh and Ianto's faces lit up. Gwen often went on about how good Rhys' cooking was, and since they'd started the sleep roster he'd been dropping in home-cooked meals for them, that they could reheat and eat whenever they had a few minutes to spare. Takeaway wasn't always an option with the rift predictor being, well, unpredictable. And so Rhys had become a bit of a hero in his own right.

"What about lasagne? Is he bringing any more? We ran out last night," said Ianto.

Gwen laughed. "I'm not sure, but I'll send him a message and let him know. Now, bed!"

* * *

_A/N: For those who absolutely must have a translation for the Japanese, it's roughly: _

_I'm well thanks Mother, and you? How's father? ...I don't have a boyfriend (In a "God's mum, do I have to say it again?" kinda way) ...Seriously! How often do I need to say this? ...An American? I'm not dating now, mother. ...What? I didn't give your address to anyone! What was his name? Mother, this is important! ...Well, If he calls you again, call me straight away. You understand Mother? ...No, its fine, I'm ok. Look after yourself though._


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Major spoilers for the Torchwood novel _Skypoint _within.**

* * *

Jack and Owen returned to the hub mid-morning. Jack had found two of the remaining contamination sources; Owen had found one and then given up on the last after becoming lost in a maze of smaller pipes. When he'd finally found his way out again, they'd agreed to go back for that one later.

"Well it's been quiet this morning," said Gwen. "Nothing of interest from any of our usual sources, and no rift activity reported by the monitor."

"Which means, Gwen and I are going to go for a nice stroll about the Plass," said Toshiko.

"Oh?" Jack raised an eyebrow.

"I've finished the modifications to the portable rift monitor. It should, theoretically, being able to trace any source of interference in the rift energy signals. Of course, I haven't had any way of testing it.." Tosh trailed off.

"But I trust your work," said Jack. "Go on then, the sooner we find this thing, the sooner life can go back to normal. And I am very much looking forward to that." There was silent agreement from everyone on that point. Gwen and Tosh headed out through the cog door, emerging from the tourist office a minute later. Tosh held out the device, looking deceptively like any other PDA.

"What kind of range does it have?" asked Gwen.

"I'm not certain. I would assume the same as it normally does for rift activity detection, which is about 1500 feet. But it might be less. This is all uncharted territory. For all I know, I might not even have the equations right."

"Well we won't know until we try, hey?" They started to walk casually up towards the water tower. There was no way of knowing where the object might be, but since the water tower housed the rift monitor, it made sense to start near there and work their way outwards. They were lucky -it was an overcast but so far dry day in Cardiff. There were tourists milling around and locals passing through, but nobody minded them. They walked a slow circle around the base of the water tower, which didn't reveal anything. They widened their path to include the entire Plass, and still found nothing. They completed a third lap, going right along the board walks, up behind the National Assembly building and the Millennium Centre, then followed the streets to complete a lap a full block away from the water tower. There was nothing.

"We could go further out?" suggested Gwen hesitantly, but Toshiko shook her head.

"No, I think if this thing is working correctly, and there was something here, than we would have picked it up. I've probably got the equations wrong -I'll check it again over lunch."

They headed back and used the invisible lift to get back to the hub.

"Find anything?" called Jack. He was standing at Ianto's workstation, where the younger man was sitting at his desk and looking frustrated.

"No," said Gwen. "Aren't you supposed to be resting?"

"I am," said Jack with a cheeky grin. "I don't need to sleep every day; I can use my two hours to relax in whatever way I prefer." He ran a hand down each side of Ianto.

"Unfortunately, his ideas seem more relaxing for him than me," Ianto growled. Jack moved his fingers slightly and Ianto jumped. Jack laughed and continued to tickle him lightly, ignoring the vehement demands that he cease immediately. Gwen and Tosh giggled as Ianto finally stood and batted Jack away properly.

"Stop it! This might be your break but I still have work to do."

"Ianto," Jack wheedled. "You're working 18 hour shifts right now. Surely you have a few minutes to spare?"

"Given that I end up completing most of your paperwork as well as mine, I'm appreciating the long shifts as a chance to catch up, actually." He glared at Jack. "Plus, I hate being tickled."

Jack snorted. "You're so ticklish I can barely touch you without unintentionally setting you off."

"Which makes it ok to do it intentionally, does it?" Ianto turned to the amused women. "Coffee?" He received nods from both of them and turned to the machine behind him. Jack finally took the hint and followed Tosh back to her workstation.

"No luck with finding the interference then?"

"No," said Tosh, shaking her head. "It's probably the equations, I'll check through them again."

"Don't be so hard on yourself, you know this stuff inside and out. There could be another reason why you didn't find anything."

"Like what?"

"Like it's cloaked, or it's mobile. Or it's not there, and we still haven't found the right explanation."

Toshiko thought about it. "No, I'm pretty sure this is it. It just fits so perfectly -it couldn't be anything else. Look, the equations are probably right, but the detail has to be exact. I've probably just made a typo and once I find it, we can figure this out once and for all."

Jack nodded and patted her arm. "If you say so. But I want you to go home on time after lunch, understand? No matter how close you think you are to getting it right. You're no good to me if you're exhausted." Toshiko acquiesced with a dip of her head, and Jack headed for his office.

* * *

"Jack?" Gwen called as she walked across the hub to his office. The door of Jack's office was open, but Gwen had seen Ianto head in there more than 10 minutes ago, and she didn't want to intrude on anything.

"Yeah?" came the response as she neared the doorway. She relaxed. She walked in, noticing that Ianto was sitting in one of the chairs opposite Jack's desk, coffee in hand. Ok, they'd just been talking.

"I've just had a message from Andy," she said. "Says there's a man just been taken into custody at the station he thinks we'll be interested in."

"Why?" asked Jack.

"I'm not sure, he didn't say," admitted Gwen.

"So Andy just sent you a message out of the blue and didn't think to explain why we'd be interested?" asked Ianto with a frown.

"Oh, well, actually, I asked him to," she replied. Seeing the looks of confusion on the two men's faces, she hurried to explain. "I asked Andy to let me know any time something odd happened, or anything that Torchwood might normally be involved in. He doesn't want other cops to know he's doing it though, so I agreed he could just send a short message with a location."

"And for some reason he thinks we'll be interested in this guy?" Jack sighed. "I don't really want us running around after false leads. We need to be here and ready for when things get bad, since we're not getting a whole lot of warning right now."

"I know, but there must be a reason for the message. They take people into custody all the time and he's never thought it'd be a case for Torchwood before. Just let me check it out."

"Gwen's right," said Ianto. "We should at least find out why Andy thinks it's our business."

Jack nodded. "Alright. You go with her Ianto. And take one of your cars; I want the SUV here in case something comes up."

* * *

They took Ianto's car. It wasn't until they were pulling up in the police carpark that Gwen realised she didn't know anything about the person they were wanting to see. How was she going to ask to see to someone in custody without specifying who? She supposed she'd have to ask for Andy and have a word with him first, even though it would blow his cover. And then they'd have to request access to this person, and probably fight their way through the red tape to get it. And should they actually need to take this guy back with them, it would be harder again.. she almost groaned aloud. Maybe Jack had been right. Maybe they should have left well enough alone.

But they were here now. Might as well check it out. Ianto parked and they got out of the car. Heading for the main entrance, Gwen was relieved to see Andy standing out the front, apparently on the phone to someone. He leaned against the wall and looked as though he was completely engrossed in his conversation, until he briefly glanced at Gwen and winked. Then she noticed a piece of paper in his spare hand. He held it discreetly by his side as Gwen and Ianto approached, and Gwen took her cue to palm it from him as they passed. Andy carried on his phone call without a pause.

As they entered the foyer, Gwen quickly unfolded and read the note. "Man named Mr Teague. Arrested for trying to leave restaurant without paying." Ok, so now they knew who to ask for. But really, some guy who hadn't paid his bill? They approached the receptionist desk.

"I wondered when you lot would show up," came a familiar voice from a doorway on their left. Detective Kathy Swanson was holding the door open to them. "Come on, I'll take you through." Gwen and Ianto exchanged a look. This was even easier than they'd expected. They followed her down the hall.

"We believe you have a 'Mr Teague' in custody?" Gwen began, trying to find out why everyone seemed to be expecting them.

Swanson snorted. "You know we do," she said. "Why else would you be here?" Gwen conceded this point as Ianto tried not to laugh behind them. The police force had seemingly come to think Torchwood was almost omniscient. He wondered how long it would have taken them to call if they hadn't shown up of their own accord.

"So how did you know we'd be coming for him?" asked Gwen.

"You're kidding right?" Swanson laughed. "He's been yelling and screaming blue murder at you lot since we brought him in. Seems to have it in for your Captain something fierce. He's driving poor Lieutenant Jeffries up the wall -he even tried to get permission to sedate the guy but there's too much red tape unless they're physically threatening someone."

Gwen glanced back at Ianto in alarm. Who on earth was waiting for them in the cell? Ianto looked just as worried.

"Can I ask a question?" said the Detective, slowing to a halt outside a security door. She turned to face both of them. "It was you guys that brought in Besnik Lucca, wasn't it?" Gwen blinked at the sudden change of topic. Behind her, Ianto nodded. Lucca had been probably the biggest criminal mastermind in Cardiff in a long time, with fingers in many pots: high-end theft, embezzlement, drugs and corrupt politics -until he'd gotten mixed up in a case Torchwood was working. They'd left him handcuffed in front of the police station with a bag of evidence around his neck.

"I've been wanting to know why you did that?" Swanson was openly curious.

Gwen was confused. "He was a criminal. Why wouldn't we?"

"That's not what I meant." Swanson shook her head. "I mean, why did you leave him out front with all the evidence, instead of dealing with him yourselves?"

"He's not the kind of problem Torchwood handles," said Ianto.

Swanson looked like she would very much like to ask exactly what kind of problems they _do_ handle. Instead, she said "So why bring him in at all?"

Ianto smiled. "He got in our way."

Swanson raised her eyebrows at that. "Remind me next time I can't quite find the evidence to pin someone down, I should put them in your way," she muttered, turning back to the security door. She punched a code into the panel beside it and it clicked open. She led them through to the Lieutenant's desk outside the cells, and Ianto glanced at the bank of CCTV monitors. Each one showed a cell, and several were occupied.

"Which one is he?"

Swanson was surprised. "You don't know? I thought.. well, I thought you must have already known each other."

Ianto shrugged.

"Nope, never met the guy," said Gwen.

Swanson pointed at one of the monitors. The man she pointed to was pacing back and forth across the few metres of the cell. He was wearing jeans, a dark grey t-shirt with an illegible slogan printed across it, and a black hoody, unzipped and with the hood pushed back. He could have passed as a teenager, but when he faced the camera they could see he was older than that, probably mid-twenties. His light brown hair was curly and messy, and Gwen thought he could use a haircut. He was cute though, and would be even more so with a cheeky grin instead of a scowl. He was saying something, occasionally raising his voice to a yell -the CCTV didn't have sound but when he yelled it echoed up the corridor to them. Gwen and Ianto could indeed make out the word 'Torchwood', although the sound was mostly incoherent. He gestured at the security camera a couple of times and Ianto noticed something.

"Gwen, did you see that?"

"Under his..?" She glanced at Ianto meaningfully.

"Yeah."

"Think it's one of them?"

"Has to be."

"But surely he could get out of here then? Why would he just stay there?" Gwen asked.

"For us, of course. It's intentional. That's why he's causing a fuss too. Get our attention."

"So if we take him, we're doing exactly what he wanted?"

"Yep." Ianto thought for a moment. "But we don't have to do it the way he planned." He turned to Swanson and the Lieutenant behind the desk, who were both looking thoroughly mystified by the conversation. "I need to get some supplies from the car."

Swanson accompanied Ianto there and back to let him through the security doors. They were back in just a few minutes. 'Mr Teague' hadn't stopped.

"The Lieutenant here says he's been pacing and yelling for over an hour," said Gwen. "Surprising he hasn't started to go hoarse yet. Oh, and he got out of his handcuffs three times when they were bringing him in."

"Not a problem," said Ianto. He held up the same sort of plastic ties they had used on Lucca a few weeks ago. "Sometimes the simple ways are best. If you would care to bring him out, Lieutenant?"

The big man behind the desk grunted and rose to his feet.

"With pleasure," he grumbled. "Can't wait for some peace and quiet around here again." He disappeared around the corner and the clanging of the metal door being unlocked was heard. Footsteps and a voice came back up the corridor towards them.

"Where are you taking me? Is Torchwood here? What's taking so long? What is it with this crummy place anyway, I didn't even get that glass of water I asked for! This place is.. oh?" Whatever he was about to say was lost as they turned the corner and saw Gwen, Ianto and Detective Swanson waiting. Before he could take another step, Ianto pulled the tranquilliser gun out of his bag and fired. Swanson started and rounded on Ianto with a yell as Mr Teague swooned against the Lieutenant. He was lowered to the floor whilst Ianto simply smiled at the Detective.

"The red tape's not such a problem for us," he grinned. He glanced around to see Gwen fixing him with a similarly disbelieving look.

"You keep that in your car?"

* * *

With the help of Detective Swanson and a wheelchair belonging to the station, Gwen and Ianto got Mr Teague out to the car. They had secured his hands together with the plastic ties in case he woke up, but the sedative should last long enough. Ianto pushed up the man's left sleeve and and took off the leather strap they'd spotted on the CCTV camera earlier. A leather strap that had a remarkable resemblance to the one Jack wore.

"We'd better keep this safely out of reach, don't you think?" Ianto asked the sleeping man. He tucked it into his pocket. They laid him across the back seat, and Ianto activated his comms.

"Jack, we're on our way back."

"_Was it anything interesting_?"

"I should think so. We've got ourselves a Time Agent."


	12. Chapter 12

"Was it anything interesting?" asked Jack.

_"I should think so," _came Ianto's reply._ "We've got ourselves a Time Agent."_

Jack swore. "Ianto, do not listen to anything he says. Assuming it's a he?"

"_Yes, but-_"

"No buts, Ianto. Don't let him talk you into anything, understand? In fact, gag him if you can. Make sure he's secure, handcuffs probably won't hold him so you'll have to find some other way. Wouldn't hurt to bind his ankles too. One of you watch him the whole time, don't take your eyes off him. And please tell me you've taken his wrist strap away?"

"_Jack_." Ianto's voice had a slight hint of annoyance. "_Of course I removed his wrist strap. We've got him cuffed with plastic ties. And I don't think a gag or ankle binds will be necessary, as he won't be using his mouth or his legs until the sedative wears off. Which shouldn't be for a good while yet_."

Jack sagged back into his seat with relief. "You sedated him? Ianto, I could kiss you right now."

"_Hold that thought for a minute and meet us in the garage. With a wheelchair if you can. We're nearly there_."

Jack jumped up and headed for one of the closest storerooms, where the extra medical supplies were kept. He located the fold up wheelchair and was in the garage waiting when Gwen and Ianto pulled up a minute or so later. He moved around to the back door and peered in.

"Recognise him?" asked Ianto.

"Not at all," muttered Jack. "He's young, too. Wonder how long he's been with the Agency. Must have been after my time." He opened the door and lifted the young man into the wheelchair. Ianto wheeled him down to the cells with Gwen and Jack close on his heels. Jack closed the glass door and stepped back to watch the sleeping man.

"How long until he wakes?" asked Gwen. Jack looked to Ianto.

"Only level 1 sedative, so probably only another half hour."

"Get him a pillow and blankets, Ianto." Ianto looked at Jack in surprise. "He might be here a while, might as well make him comfortable. Gwen, keep an eye on the CCTV, let me know when he wakes." Ianto shrugged and moved away. Gwen raised an eyebrow, but Jack didn't offer any other explanation. They headed back into the main hub, where Jack went straight up to the lab.

"Don't. Touch. Anything. If at all possible, don't breathe either. If I can just get this right.." Owen trailed off in concentration. There were bottles and beakers of flu medicine everywhere, and Owen was carefully adding one mixture to another. Jack waited.

"Right." Owen straightened up, putting down the glass in his hand. "That never would have been so hard before, but now that I can't feel what my fingers are doing," he muttered, frustrated.

"I have something to take your mind off our weevil problem for a bit," offered Jack.

"Yeah?"

"A live patient. A human one."

Owen groaned. "I hate live patients. Can't we shoot it first?"

"He's sedated," grinned Jack.

Owen brightened. "Good enough. What's he here for?"

"He's a Time Agent. Gwen & Ianto just brought him in. I want full range of scans and bloodwork done. If he's been visiting other time periods he could have brought something with him. He'll have been immunised against them but he could still be carrying viruses and bugs, and I don't want him infecting anyone else."

"I'll be right down."

A few minutes later Owen clattered down the ladder into the cells and saw the cell door was open. Ianto was in there, putting a pillow under the agent's head.

"Special treatment for this prisoner? Not another one of Jack's exes is it?"

Ianto didn't look up. "No, he didn't recognise him at all."

"So why the home comforts?"

"I'm sure Jack has his reasons."

Owen took out the Bekaran Deep-Tissue Scanner and ran it over the sleeping body, not bothering to remove the blankets first. The scanner worked perfectly well through clothes and most organic material; it was just a matter of setting how deep through the layers you wanted it to scan. It didn't show anything unusual: this was a perfectly normal human. There were signs that the left arm had once been broken and mended again, but it was very old, probably a childhood accident, Owen thought. He replaced the scanner and took out a needle to draw some blood when Jack came running into the cells.

"Owen, wait! I changed my mind."

Owen turned, and beside him Ianto raised an eyebrow. "We _shouldn't _be checking if he's carrying harmful diseases?" asked Owen.

"No, of course we should," said Jack. "But I want you to wait, do it when he's awake."

Ianto checked his watch. "That shouldn't be long now."

Owen shrugged. "You're the boss." He packed up his kit and headed back upstairs.

* * *

Not five minutes later, Gwen tapped her comms. "He's awake, Jack."

"Nobody else go down there. Just me for now," Jack ordered. He headed down the stairs as Owen and Ianto gathered behind Gwen. They were using their shared workstation to watch the CCTV.

Jack walked into the room and stopped outside the glass wall. The agent was sitting up on the bench, blankets pushed aside messily, holding his head in his hands and rubbing his forehead. Ianto had removed the plastic 'cuffs', so he was free to move about.

"Sorry about that, you may be drowsy for a little while."

The man looked up in surprise -he hadn't heard Jack walk in. They eyed each other for a minute.

"Jack Harkness, I believe?" said the younger man eventually. "Nice to meet you at last."

"It's Captain Harkness to you. And you are?"

"Advin Teague."

"Time Agent Advin Teague."

"That's right."

Jack studied the younger man for a minute, then opened the cell door and let himself in, locking it securely again with his wrist strap. He sat down on the bench opposite.

"So why are you here, Advin Teague?"

Advin leaned back against the wall and looked away, clearly not intending to respond. He absently rubbed his wrist where his wrist strap would normally be.

"Look," said Jack. "I've got no problem with you. We've never met, as far as I can remember, so you're surely not here on some personal vendetta. In fact, if you'd avoided Torchwood, gone about your own business, and then left again, I wouldn't have cared. But instead, you went out of your way to get our attention. Now you've got it. What do you want?"

Advin shook his head. "I won't speak to you. I'll speak to your superiors."

Jack had been a Time Agent, a con-man, and then a Torchwood employee for almost 110 years. His face betrayed nothing of the surprise that statement caused him. He only paused and considered Advin for a moment.

"No, you'll speak to me. My superiors don't do leg work like prisoner interrogations."

Advin shrugged. Jack decided on another tack.

"You're pretty young for a Time Agent."

"No younger than you were, when you qualified."

Ah, so he knows my Time Agent history, even if he doesn't know everything about me, thought Jack. He tried to bring back his memories of the place, though it had been 150-odd years and he hadn't wanted to remember those days for most of it. Advin spoke up.

"So you've got a rank here, Captain. How'd you manage that so quickly?"

"I'm just a likeable sort of guy I guess. How long have you been with the agency then?"

"Seven years. Qualified for four -qualified just after you left." Jack nodded, filing away that bit of information too.

"And you're here on a mission then?"

Advin clammed up again. It seemed he was happy to talk about himself, but not his reason for being there. Jack was frustrated. He wanted to get a rise out of the kid.

"So you're not here on a mission. Which means you're either on holiday, or personal business," he said, languidly. "Time travel not being permitted for either purpose, you must have gone rogue. So why come to me? Oh, because I've gone rogue too, and quite successfully I think. So, I must conclude, you've come to me for help or advice," Jack leered. "I'm sure I could be persuaded to help, for the right payment.."

Advin had sat up and leaned forward during Jack's speech. Now he looked angry. "Never!" he hissed. "I would never go rogue! I would never betray the agency and become anything like the rotten muck you turned out to be. And if you dare impugn my honour that way again -no, actually, once was one time too many!"

Without warning Advin launched himself at Jack. With barely a metre separating them Jack didn't have a chance to move before Advin was on top of him. He tried to grab the other man's arms and hold him back, but Advin head butted him forcefully and his grip slackened. Advin reached for his left sleeve and pulled out a tiny needle. Jack tightened his grip again and managed to push Advin back, but Advin got a solid kick to Jack's knee and twisted out of his grip. A second later, the needle was in Jack's neck, and his sight was going blurry. God, this kid has moves, he thought as he slumped over. He felt Advin removing his wrist strap and tried feebly to stop him, but his motor control was diminishing fast and his right hand barely flailed at the left. He was able to make out the shape of Advin leaving the cell, then stopping, swaying, and unexpectedly falling over in the hall outside. Then Ianto was there, tranquilliser gun still in hand, lifting his head to look at him properly.

"Jack? Jack? Can you hear me?" Jack could, but he couldn't seem to form the words. And it would be so much easier to just close his eyes, so he did. And he sank into the darkness.

* * *

Jack resurrected on the lounge in the central hub. After the initial panic and disorientation had subsided, he found his head was on Ianto's lap, and he looked up into the Welshman's sparkling blue eyes.

"Welcome back."

"Nice to be back," he replied. He reached up for a quick kiss before swinging his legs over the side and sitting up properly. Ianto held up Jack's wrist strap and Jack hurried to put it back on. He noticed Gwen and Tosh were at Tosh's workstation, and Owen stomping up the stairs from the medical bay. "What'd I miss?"

"Your good friend Advin stabbed you with a very nasty poison," said Owen, arriving at the end of the lounge. "There was nothing I could have done, even if it wasn't such a fast acting toxin."

"And, we've solved the mystery of who introduced himself to my parents. He's definitely the guy on the CCTV," said Tosh, swiveling round on her chair. Jack looked confused. Tosh hadn't gotten a chance to mention it to him yet, so she explained. "Being a time agent means he can teleport as well as time travel, right?" she asked.

Jack nodded. "Pretty rare to find a time travel device that can't -can end up in all sorts of awkward situations if you move through time without any adjustment in location."

"Right. So that explains how he could be here only one day after seeing my parents. And of course, the 'American' accent, and the name. 'Adam' and 'Advin' are similar enough, I expect my parents just misheard."

"But we still don't know why he was there," said Gwen.

Jack looked around, noticing the whole team for the first time. "Gwen, shouldn't you be at home?"

"Well, yes it's my turn, but I can't go home right now."

"Yes, you can," said Jack. "Having a Time Agent in our cells doesn't mean everything's going to hit the fan right now, nor does it mean the rest of our problems have gone away. We will need you tomorrow. That means you need sleep now. Go home."

Gwen wanted to argue, but Tosh laid a hand on her arm and she caved, heading to her own workstation to collect her things. Jack moved forward to check the CCTV. Advin was asleep on one of the benches again.

"We searched him again," said Ianto. "Used the Bekaran scanner to check inside his clothes for any other hidden weapons. Found two more needles like the one he used on you, but that was all. Sorry we didn't find those the first time."

Jack shook his head. "Not your fault. He's well-trained in the art of hiding weapons on his body." Jack remembered times when he had surprised enemies with weapons he'd hidden about his self.

"I topped up the dart's sedative dose," said Owen. "He'll sleep for about 18 hours. Thought we could use the time to sort out what we're doing with him."

Jack nodded. "Good thinking."

"My first question," continued Owen, "would be 'what Time Agency?' Didn't Hart tell you it was shut down?"

"Yes, he did," conceded Jack, "but we're talking a time traveller from a Time Agency here. I don't know when Hart came from, and he didn't mention when the Agency was shut down. So that might happen after the time this kid is from."

"Or, Hart could have been lying to get you all nostalgic and convince you to go with him," said Owen. Jack glared at him, but it was entirely possible.

"He killed you, Jack," said Ianto, bringing the topic back to Advin. "What ever other reasons he has for being here, we can't forget that.

"No, but it leads to some interesting questions," said Jack. He wandered into his office and sat down behind his desk, unsurprised when the remaining three team members followed him in and stood around in a loose group.

"What do we know?" asked Owen. After a short pause, Ianto summarised.

"He doesn't know Jack can't die. He doesn't know Jack's in charge here. He seems to think, correct me if I'm wrong, that you've only been here for a few years."

"About four years," agreed Jack. "Which is when he's from. Four years after I left the Agency, they've sent someone after me. But why? Why wait, and why come after me at all?"

"Has there been any sort of precedent for this?" asked Ianto. "Have others gone 'rogue', and have they been tracked down?"

Jack shook his head. "Not that I know of. Being a Time Agent was the ultimate. Like telling people you're MI5 only with money and fame. People would recognise you in the street. Me especially. Why would you want to leave that kind of job?"

"Why you especially?" asked Tosh.

"I was the poster boy for the Agency for a while. Recruitment drives and all that." Owen snorted and Tosh and Ianto tried unsuccessfully not to smile. Jack grinned back at them. "What can I say? People love me."

Ianto tried to get back on topic. "So if leaving is so unusual, could your departure have something to do with this?"

Jack frowned. He had left after two years of his memory had been wiped. Could something he'd done in those two years be the reason? "Maybe. But it shouldn't have taken them so long to find me -and it's even more alarming that Agent Teague down there knows so little about me. Time Agents have it drummed into them to research their subjects and time periods thoroughly. Either I've covered my tracks very, very well, or someone hasn't done their homework. I'm leaning towards the latter."

There was a pause.

"So what now?" asked Tosh. The weevil alert sounded in the hub, and Owen sighed dramatically.

"That's what," agreed Jack. "We keep working at our other problems. I'll find out what I can about Advin in the meantime, and we'll talk to him again tomorrow."

"What will you tell him when he sees you're alive?" asked Ianto.

"We have excellent medical resources here," said Jack. They nodded, the message clear.

"Right. I'd better be off," said Owen.

* * *

The next morning, Ianto was woken an hour early by Jack climbing in beside him.

"You don't mind?"

"Not at all," Ianto murmured. He rolled over to face Jack and slung an arm across his waist, curling his head onto Jack's shoulder. He closed his eyes and tried to settle back into sleep, or at least a doze, but Jack wouldn't relax and Ianto could feel his tenseness.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Ianto felt a kiss pressed against his forehead. "Go back to sleep."

Ianto gave it another few minutes but Jack was still too wound up. "Jack, I can't sleep when you're so tense."

"Sorry, I'll go." He made to sit up but Ianto tightened his arm to hold him back. "Ianto, let me go."

"Lay back down, Cariad."

Jack sighed but did as he was told.

"It's the agent, isn't it? It bothers you that he's here."

"Yes."

"Do you think he's been sent here?"

"Yes. I was goading him earlier. He wouldn't be here on a holiday or personal mission. Besides, you saw his reaction when I dared to suggest he might have left the Agency."

"He's certainly loyal."

"And proud. Arrogant."

"Must be a Time Agent thing," Ianto grinned.

"Hey!" Jack slapped lightly at the arm across his waist.

"So why would they come after you Jack?"

Jack tensed again. "I don't know."

"Why did you leave the Agency? You said it might be related." Ianto wouldn't have thought it possible, but Jack seemed to tense even further. He raised his head to look at the other man. Jack was staring at the ceiling, avoiding his gaze. "Why did you leave, Jack? What happened?" he asked softly.

"I don't know what I might have done, Ianto." Jack responded so quietly, Ianto almost didn't catch the words. "They took my memory, two years, just gone. I have no idea why, or what I did in those two years. Did I do something wrong? Did I do something right, but piss off someone powerful in the process? Did I find out something I shouldn't have known? I don't know. But when I woke up one morning, I was battered and bruised, had no idea where I'd been for two years, and I panicked. I ran. And ever since, I've been terrified that someone would come after me."

Ianto held Jack tightly as the words sank in. Jack had been afraid of this for so long, and now it was coming true. And he still didn't know why. No wonder he was nervous. After a few minutes, Ianto had a query.

"I.. don't take this the wrong way, I'm just curious. But it strikes me that after that experience, you might be less willing to use Retcon as much as we do."

Jack shifted slightly, to get more comfortable. "I had a big problem with it when I first found out what Torchwood One was working on. It was developed in London, but when they did quality testing out here, I refused to be a test subject. I was a freelancer for Torchwood back then; I had no say in policy matters. But when they finalised the formulations, and started using it, I could see it's benefit. Especially as we only take as much as we have to. And unlike my experience, Retcon allows a person's mind to fill in the gaps. They often don't realise any memories are missing."

"And you did?"

"I knew something was wrong as soon as I woke. I couldn't remember the previous day, or week -thought maybe I'd had a concussion or something. Fitted with the aches and bruises. But when I found out what the date was, I realised it was more. And I couldn't fill in the blanks -it's like, the memories were there, but I was locked out."

They fell silent again, Ianto drawing little patterns across Jack's chest with his fingertips.

"Do you think they're still there? If we found some way of unlocking them.."

"I don't know. I searched for that for a long time, when I first left. But even if we found a way, I've never been able to decide if I want to know."


	13. Chapter 13

The midday hours passed quickly. There was another daylight weevil alert, which Owen told Jack and Ianto they could handle, since the weevil was pretty much guaranteed to be dead or dying, and he would rather keep working on the medicine. They agreed, leaving Gwen to keep an eye on the hub. On their way back, dead weevil in the boot, she contacted them to let them know of a possible rift event: the police scanner had picked up a report of someone throwing unusual items onto the motorway from an overhead bridge. They drove by to check it out, and found the rift had spat an odd collection of objects onto the road. It wasn't really near the bridge, but there was no other logical explanation for where the items had come from, so Jack let the the local police maintain that story. They had the PC's block the traffic for a few minutes whilst they shifted the loose items into containment boxes, and were on their way again.

"Looks like someone in the Isop Galaxy has lost their underwear drawer," commented Jack.

Ianto's eyes bulged. "That was _underwear_?"

"Not _just_ underwear," Jack leered, voice dripping with innuendo, and Ianto was unable to tell whether he was kidding or not. You never could, when Jack said that sort of thing.

When they got back to the hub, Ianto took the weevil to the autopsy bay while Jack checked in with Gwen.

"Was there any indication of that rift activity on the monitor?"

"Nothing," said Gwen. "I checked as soon as I heard the call on the police scanner, but it's been quiet all morning."

"Take the portable monitor back up to the Plass and see if it can pick up anything now. Obviously whatever's interfering has been active this morning."

Ianto came back up and checked the CCTV from the cells on Owen's workstation. "Still sleeping," he said, as Jack came to look over his shoulder.

"He'll stay that way a few more hours yet," Jack replied. "Lunch? I'm starving."

Ianto served up some casserole from one of the three pots currently in the hub's fridge, reheating them in Torchwood's shiny new microwave. He took them into Jack's office and they ate in comfortable silence. Gwen joined them a few minutes later, saying the device hadn't picked up anything. When they were done, Ianto cleared the plates and was headed back to his own workstation when his mobile rang. He didn't even bother looking at the screen.

"Rhi, I can't really talk right now."

"Just for a minute? Please?" came his sister's voice.

He sighed. "What is it?"

"I was just wondering if you'd get a break anytime soon, so we could meet for coffee. I'm in the city already, we could go to that little cafe round the corner from your work," Rhiannon pleaded.

"I'd love to, but we're really very busy here.."

"Ianto! It's just tourists! And there never seems to be many down in that part of the bay -I can't imagine what it is you're so busy with all the time." No, thought Ianto. You really can't. "Anyway, your boss has to give you breaks, it's the law."

"Alright, alright, hang on a sec and I'll check." Ianto held the phone against his shoulder and stepped into Jack's office. Jack looked up, noticing the phone.

"Your sister again?"

"Yeah, she's desperate for me to meet her this afternoon. It's terrible timing, I know, and if you say no I won't be bothered."

Jack leaned back in his chair. "Well, I don't think Advin will be awake for a few hours yet. But don't go far -if we get rift activity, we'll need you."

"I'll be just round the corner, and my comms are always on."

"Then sure. Bring some treats back for the rest of us." Ianto nodded in thanks and stepped back out, heading for the tourist office. He lifted the phone again.

"OK, I can be there in five. Not for long though, alright?"

"Good! I'll see you there."

Rhiannon sounded just a bit too eager to see him, and he wondered why. Being harassed until he managed to catch up with her was normal, but it was only 10 days since they'd last had coffee, and Rhi usually gave it a few weeks before calling up again. He grabbed his coat from the tourist office and locked it behind him. A few minutes later he entered the coffee shop and spotted his sister, with another woman.

Ianto carefully schooled his features and suppressed the urge to groan aloud. _That _was why she wanted to meet up -she was trying to set him up with a friend. Again. Maybe he _should_ have told her he was going to a conference. He headed over to their table, a convincingly pleasant smile on his face. Rhi jumped up and hugged him.

"Ianto! I want you to meet Kerri, a new friend of mine. She's just moved here from America." The other woman stood and held out her hand, which Ianto politely shook.

"Pleasure to meet you," she smiled.

"You, too." He motioned at the counter. "I'll just get myself a drink and then I'll join you."

All too soon he was sitting down at the table, wondering how long he could wait before making his excuses and getting out of there. Rhiannon dominated the conversation as she usually did, though Ianto noticed most of Kerri's responses were polite and not necessarily interested. The woman looked to be late twenties, maybe early thirties -definitely older than him, Ianto thought. A bit strange of his sister to be setting him up with an older woman. But she was still a looker: long dark hair, tied back in a neat-but-not-strict ponytail. A fashionable red long-sleeve top, and gold necklace and earrings in tasteful style.

Eventually though, Rhiannon rose and excused herself to the ladies'. Ianto resisted the urge to roll his eyes at her deliberate ploy to leave him and Kerri alone.

"So, Kerri, what part of America are you from?" he asked.

"Oh, you know.. here and there. Moved around a bit. What about you? Always lived in Cardiff?"

"Mostly," he said vaguely, determined to keep the conversation about her. "So why move here?"

"My employer's request. I work for an antiques dealer, and they think there might be some interesting finds buried around here." Kerri smiled and Ianto forced himself to respond in kind. He politely asked about her family, and received a brief response before Kerri turned the questions back to him. She asked about his work, and he told her about the tourist information centre.

Rhiannon returned at that point and suggested Ianto would be the perfect person to show Kerri around town, given his occupation. "And don't give me that crap about being busy -tell your boss it's part of your job."

Ianto didn't have a chance to respond as he was surprised by a tap on the shoulder a moment later.

"It's Jones, isn't it?" asked Swanson.

"Detective Swanson. How, er, nice to see you." Ianto stumbled over the words a little as his mind raced ahead. Swanson knew he was Torchwood -what if she mentioned his work in front of his sister? "Ah, this is my sister, Rhiannon and her friend Kerri." He noticed Swanson's eyes narrowed as she nodded politely at the two women.

"Jones, can I have a word?" He followed her to a clear space a few feet away, and made sure to get the first word in.

"Detective, my family don't know I'm Torchwood and I would prefer it stayed that way," he stated quickly. Swanson was surprised for a moment, but nodded in understanding.

"Actually, it's that other woman I wanted to talk to you about."

"Kerri?"

"Do you know her?"

Ianto shook his head. "Rhi only just introduced us, said she's just moved here from America. I think I'm being set up," he added, rolling his eyes.

"I saw her last week, at the crime scene your two colleagues attended. One of the PC's keeping the crowd out said they were asking questions about Torchwood. He thinks they were conspiracy theorists."

Ianto's eyebrows shot up, then he frowned. Asking questions about Torchwood, then suddenly becoming friends with his sister, who tried to set them up together? Sounded like they were running a conspiracy of their own.

"'They'?" he asked.

"Her and a man, same accent. Apparently the constable they were badgering was in a bad mood, said he refused to tell them anything."

Ianto was relieved. "Thank you," he said, truly grateful that Swanson had cared enough to let him know.

"Don't mention it. Oh, and by the way," she tilted her head slightly in curiosity. "Are you lot alright? Just, you've all looked pretty worn when I've seen you lately, and it's only ever two at a time. In the old days, it'd be four or nothing."

Ianto plastered on a smile. "Just going through a busy patch."

"Well, call me if you need anything. You lot aren't our best friends by a long stretch, but I tend to believe you're working in the city's interests, all the same. If you need some extra hands on deck, just ask." The detective picked up her takeaway coffee from the counter, and left.

Ianto wondered at Swanson's change of heart as he returned to the table.

"What was that about?" Rhiannon frowned. "You're not in trouble are you?"

"Of course not." Ianto waved away his sister's concerns. "The office was broken into last week, and the Detective just wanted to organise to come in and finish the paperwork."

"Oh my! Did they take much?" asked Kerri.

Ianto laughed. "It's a tourist information centre, there's not much in there of value. And there's no money kept overnight anyway. Some of the brochures and posters will need to be replaced, but that's all. Speaking of which, I should be getting back."

He refused Rhiannon's pleas to stay longer, but was unable to be impolite when she jotted Kerri's mobile number down and handed it to him. "We'll have to meet up and you can show me around," smiled Kerri.

"Er, yeah," said Ianto. He escaped as quickly as he could and hurried back to the hub.

* * *

"Ianto, good. Perfect timing," called Jack as the cog door wheeled aside.

"Perfect timing, sir?" he asked.

"Advin's just woken up. And you are getting a promotion." Jack was grinning, hands on hips and he watched confusion flick across Ianto's face. Gwen took pity on him.

"Advin doesn't realise Jack's in charge here. He wants to meet Jack's superiors. So you and Owen will be his superiors."

"Wouldn't Gwen be a better choice?" asked Ianto, turning back to Jack. "I have no experience in interviewing people."

"If these guys know anything about the 21st century, they'll know that -despite all the feminist movements and equal opportunity reforms, it's still uncommon for a woman to be in charge of a powerful organisation. He is much more likely to accept that you're my superior than Gwen. Besides, I know you have a perfect poker face when you want to."

Ianto managed not to flinch at the reminder of the secrets he kept hidden from Torchwood for so long. And then realised that was exactly what Jack was talking about -the ability to hide his natural reaction.

"Won't I look a little young for the job?"

"I've seen you tackle serious situations, and you don't look at all immature or inexperienced then. You're perfect."

Ianto sighed and headed for his workstation -suddenly he needed another coffee already. Gwen called out to ask for one too, so he made one for Jack as well. He took it into Jack's office, surprised to see Owen already there.

"There's nothing more I can do in the lab for a few hours," Owen supplied.

Ianto nodded. "So, what do we need to know?"

"Well for starters, you are now Director Jones," said Jack. "Owen is the Deputy-Director."

"Why can't I be the deputy?"

"You're the one that wears the suits, Teaboy."

Ianto gave up then. He couldn't help but agree he looked much more the part than Owen did.

"Alright. But you'd better be in my comms feeding me questions if I need it."

"You'll be fine, have some faith in yourself, Ianto," said Jack. "Now, let's find out what he knows."


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: A nice long chapter to make up for a few missed days. Hope everyone had a great couple of days!**

* * *

Jack had Gwen and Owen go down and cuff Advin with plastic ties again, keeping his hands securely behind his back. He asked what was going on, and tried to flirt with Gwen, but they refused to speak to him except to tell him what to do. Gwen sidestepped when he tried to move suggestively up against her, but otherwise ignored his behaviour. They blindfolded him, walked him to the interrogation room, and then removed the blindfold again. Jack didn't want him knowing anything about the inside of the hub, so blindfolding was the easiest option. Jack and Gwen sat back to watch the CCTV.

"Ready?" asked Owen.

"As I'll ever be," said Ianto. They headed down the stairs from Jack's office.

As they entered, Advin quirked an eyebrow at Ianto. "You're the one that shot me at the police station. Don't tell me you're in charge here."

"Alright, I won't," Ianto deadpanned. "I was in a meeting with the local law enforcement heads when you were brought into the station yesterday. Very convenient timing," said Ianto smoothly. "Do you mind if I sit?" Without waiting for a response he sat in the chair opposite Advin, whilst Owen stood to one side. "I am Director Jones, this is Deputy-Director Harper."

Advin nodded in acknowledgement. "As I said to the late Jack Harkness, I am Advin Teague." He continued to eye Ianto. "Bit young to be in charge, aren't you?"

Ianto chose not to correct his assumption about Jack just yet. "The director of Torchwood is not chosen according to his age," he said curtly. "Let's get down to business, shall we? Why are you here, Mr Teague?"

"I am here for Jack Harkness. If I can just have his body, I'll be out your way promptly."

"Is this a personal matter?" Ianto inquired.

Advin shook his head. "Strictly business. I have been sent here by my employer with orders to fetch Harkness, dead or alive."

"Your employer being the Time Agency that Harkness used to work for, yes?" Ianto was the very definition of cool, calm and collected. Advin nodded, so Ianto went on. "And why would the Time Agency want him, especially if he is dead? Surely he would be of no further use to them at that point?"

Advin's eyes narrowed. "Does it matter? He is equally useless to you. Why not simply let me be on my way?"

Owen coughed. "Actually, Torchwood has a policy of keeping all of their employees in cryogenic preservation after their demise."

"Well, that's one of the oddest things I've ever heard -at least amongst humans," said Advin.

"In any case," said Ianto, "we are in no position to give you his body, since Harkness is still using it."

Advin's eyes widened. "He's not dead? But he must be. Even the smallest amount of the toxin I gave him should be enough to kill. And even in my time there's no cure quick enough to stop it."

Ianto gave a small smile. "Jack Harkness is currently recovering in our medical bay. He is most definitely still alive. We have the very _best_ medical facilities here."

Advin settled back in his chair, frowning. "Well done, Torchwood," he said with a hint of sarcasm.

"Do you know what Torchwood does?" asked Ianto, casually.

"Enlighten me."

"_Don't_," came Jack's voice in Ianto's ear.

Ianto shook his head. He hadn't been planning to. "I was asking if you knew, Mr Teague; not offering to explain." Advin merely shrugged. "Well then, I'm afraid that I will be unable to help you with your mission unless I know why your Agency wants Harkness. I assume they don't plan to utilise him as an agent, since they are so content with the thought of his death."

Advin paused a moment. "Harkness is not privy to this information?"

"You have my word." Ianto didn't blink. Owen was starting to get creeped out by how good Ianto was at this.

"He has committed serious crimes, and must be brought to justice. If he dies, I must take back proof of his death, preferably his body. There is little else that would be accepted in it's place."

"What crimes?" asked Ianto.

Advin shrugged. "I am not given such information. I am only the errand boy."

Ianto leaned back in his chair as if considering the matter.

"_Why now?_" Jack hissed. Ianto waited a moment then straightened again.

"Harkness has been here some years," he said. "Why come for him now?"

"I believe he has been somewhat difficult to track down," Advin replied. "I'm not involved in such tasks myself, I only get sent out once a job has been defined. But I believe the Agency has been searching for him for some time. Of course, when a person may be anywhere in space _and _time, tracking them down is an interesting prospect."

Ianto nodded, steepling his fingers as he pretended to think things through again.

"_Is he alone_?" asked Jack.

"Did you come alone, Mr Teague?" repeated Ianto.

Advin nodded. "Just me."

Ianto eyed Advin curiously. "It strikes me that your Time Agency went to some trouble to track Harkness down. It seems odd that after all that, they would only send one person to fetch him. Especially one as young as you seem to be."

Advin smiled. "I may be young, but I am one of the best. And as you said earlier, Director Jones: we are not chosen for our age."

Ianto nodded, then stood abruptly. "I think we're done here for now, Mr Teague. We will speak again soon." He turned left the room before Advin could make any response. Owen followed him out. Jack met them at the top and pulled Ianto into a hug.

"You are amazing, Mr Jones."

"Creepy, more like," muttered Owen. "You were much too good at that, Teaboy."

"I learnt from the best," Ianto quipped. Owen looked between Ianto and Jack with an eyebrow quirked, as Jack looked at Ianto in pleased surprise. "No, not you, sir," grinned Ianto. "Bond, James Bond."

Owen and Gwen smothered their laughter as well as they could as Jack scowled. "Owen, Gwen: take Advin back to his cell. Don't forget the blindfold, but you can remove that and the cuffs once he's there. We're still treating him well."

"He tried to kill you. He _did _kill you," protested Gwen.

"I'm aware. And I still expect you to treat him well."

Jack and Ianto waited quietly as Advin was led up the stairs and past Jack's office, then back down into the cell levels.

"So how much of that was the truth?" asked Ianto.

"Some. I don't doubt they probably had a hellish time tracking me down, although them not realising I've been here over a hundred years is still an interesting fact. If Time Agents had been sent to the 1900's to pick me up, we would've had a hard time stopping them."

"And the rest?"

"He definitely lied about being here alone. And I'm certain he knows more about Torchwood than he's letting on. The question is, how much more?"

Owen and Gwen returned in time to hear the end of the conversation.

"I have another question," said Owen. "What crimes was he talking about?"

Jack shook his head. "I don't know. When I left I stole a one-man ship, but that's hardly a crime worth chasing someone across time and space for. And the ship didn't belong to the Agency anyway. They wouldn't put that time and effort into someone else's problem."

"So he's making it up?" asked Gwen.

"Not necessarily. I just.. don't know." Jack looked uncomfortable and Ianto stepped in to stop Gwen pushing the issue.

"Anyone for a coffee?"

"I'll take one," said Owen.

"No you won't," said Ianto quickly. "I had to clean the bathroom last time you decided to try that. Anyone else?" He herded Owen and Gwen out of the office ahead of him then headed for his corner of the hub. Jack came striding out of his office just as Ianto headed back with the drinks.

"Gwen, do you mind staying a few minutes after Tosh gets back tonight?"

"Sure." She sipped at the mug Ianto handed her.

"Good. Owen, we need to get those tests done, make sure he hasn't brought anything dangerous with him. I still don't want him to see me, so Ianto's in charge again -soon as Tosh gets here, we'll do it."

Owen nodded. "Fine by me."

* * *

When Tosh arrived back at the hub that evening, Ianto gave her a quick update of what had happened, and promised she could watch the interview on CCTV later. The four team members headed for the cells. Ianto and Owen approached the glass wall of the centre cell, and Advin stood to face them.

"We need to do a medical check, make sure you're clean," said Ianto. "Deputy Director Harper here is also our Chief Medical Officer, so he will conduct the tests. We can do this the polite way or the slightly-less-polite way, up to you. The first way means Dr Harper will come into your cell, check you over, and leave again. You will cooperate and not try to escape, and all will be fine. The other option is we put you to sleep first. Up to you. If you'd prefer to be sedated, we can do that, but it's not necessary."

"All time agents are clean, and immunised against just about everything. This isn't necessary."

"As you've learnt, we have very good medical facilities here, Mr Teague. We have developed those through strict practices, and we don't make exceptions. We will do our tests."

"What kinds of tests?"

"We have a non-invasive scanner, which will be run over your body. There's no need to remove any clothing. And we'll take some blood to run tests on."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

"I don't need to be asleep for that," Advin concluded.

"Good. Now, I'm sure you understand that we can't trust you. So just in case, myself, and my two colleagues here," he indicated Toshiko and Gwen, "all have tranquilliser guns, and if you try to escape, we will simply knock you out again." Advin glanced at Gwen and Tosh, standing at opposite ends of the room. Even if he managed to get past Owen and Ianto, which was unlikely, there was no way he could get past either of the women without the other getting a clear shot at him. He thought it odd that they were so fond of the sedative darts -he knew they had proper guns, the two women were wearing their holsters even now. But who was he to argue with their apparent leniency? He nodded.

"Right," said Ianto. He opened the cell door. "Dr Harper?"

"Stand up straight, hands by your sides, palms forward," said Owen brusquely. He repeated the scans he had done the day before, starting the Bekaran scanner at Advin's right hand, then moving it up his arm to his shoulder. "Break your arm as a kid, did you?"

Advin was impressed. He couldn't see what was showing on the other side of the scanner, but obviously it could analyse him down to the bone.

"Fell off my Titan when I was eight," he said, oblivious to the blank looks around him.

"_Kinda like a hovering dirt bike_," Jack supplied over the comms.

Owen continued over Advin's whole body for several minutes, leaving his head until last. Then he put the scanner aside and went back to the cell door to retrieve the blood sample kit. "Take a seat, mate," he said, and Advin sat on the bench obediently. He could see Ianto was still holding his tranquilliser gun at the ready, watching his movements closely. Gwen was too, standing in the doorway at the far end, and although her gun was pointing downwards in a relaxed way, Advin knew her guard wasn't down. Toshiko was out of sight from where he was sitting. Owen bustled about putting a tourniquet on his arm, and cleaned it with an alcohol swab.

"Your hands are freezing," Advin complained.

Owen grinned at him. "I have poor circulation. Right, here we go." Advin nodded and looked straight ahead as the needle entered his arm. He wasn't afraid of them, but it never seemed right to watch something piercing your skin while you sat there complacently. Owen efficiently filled four tubes with blood, then neatly removed the needle and pressed a plaster against the tiny wound. "Hold that there." Advin did as he was told as Owen packed up the kit. "All done."

"Thank you for that, Mr Teague," said Ianto, closing the cell door as Owen left. "We'll talk again soon." He started to turn away, but Advin called after him.

"Director." Ianto turned back, and the others stopped too. Advin seemed uncertain how to ask his question. "I.. if it's possible, well, I was wondering if I might get another chance to speak to Harkness. When he's recovered."

Ianto frowned. "You tried to kill him."

"You know I don't have any means to attempt that again. And you can keep us separated if you prefer," said Advin, indicating the glass wall of his cell.

"I'll think about it," said Ianto, then turned away and headed out, followed by the rest of the team.

Gwen was sent home for her shift shortly after and Ianto pointed out to Jack that Advin had been with them for over 24 hours without food. Admittedly he'd slept through most of it but no doubt he was getting hungry now. Jack sent Tosh down with a serving of one of Rhys' dishes. They watched on the CCTV as Advin tried to talk and flirt with her but she delivered the food and a bottle of water and hastily left again.

"Tosh, you can handle breakfast for him in the morning too. Ianto will be asleep," said Jack.

"Besides, the Director of Torchwood is much too busy with more important affairs," said Ianto airily. He was deciding there was an upside to this gig. Though he still had to feed Janet and Myfanwy himself. Luckily Janet was on a different level in the cells so Advin wouldn't see him.

Owen approached. "Just got our first weevil alert for the night Captain, I'll see you in a few hours."

"How's the weevil medicine going Owen?" Jack asked.

"Just about done -I reckon tomorrow I can start bottling it up and either tomorrow afternoon or the following morning it'll be ready."

"Good. Let me know when it is."

There was rift activity about 1am, another round of the inert space junk that filled most of Torchwood's vaults. Jack, Ianto and Tosh headed out, prepared for a full-scale invasion, but were pleasantly surprised to find the monitor had been accurate for once. Right location, right description. Toshiko was overjoyed.

* * *

The next morning Jack forfeited his break time in favour of a meeting with the whole team. Once Ianto was awake, caffeinated and fed, they filed into the boardroom. Jack stood at the head of the table looking serious.

"We have a problem. The Time Agency wants my head, and I'm not sure what I've done, if anything, to deserve it. We have an agent of theirs in the cells, and if we let him go he will no doubt attempt to complete his mission somehow. But neither can we keep him forever."

"I think, what we need first Jack," suggested Ianto, "is some idea who we're up against here. What exactly is the Time Agency?"

Jack nodded and took his seat. "The Time Agency was formed about three decades after humans developed time travel. Other species have been doing it for millennia, but it was still brand new to humans. After 30-odd years, the technology had developed sufficiently that anyone with enough money could get their hands on it -and some of them were not all that wise in using it. So the Agency was set up as a kind of time-travel police. To prevent paradoxes, prevent major changes in history, and prosecute anyone who tried to use the technology for personal gain."

"Is there any way to use time travel safely?" asked Toshiko. "It seems to me that even with good intentions, time travel would always be a dangerous thing."

Jack grinned. "In my time there's a massive philosophical and moral debate always raging about this question. However, the point is irrelevant -the technology exists, therefore the Agency was set up to regulate it. But like any government authority, if the wrong people get to be in charge, it's purpose can be twisted."

"You mean it's corrupt," said Owen.

Jack nodded. "That's about the sum of it. And like MI5 here, they have free reign in certain situations. They are ruthless and powerful. You don't want to be on their list."

"Which it appears you are," said Ianto lightly.

"So what do we do?" asked Gwen.

Jack grimaced. "I don't know. Any ideas, I'm open to suggestions right now."

"Jack?" Tosh piped up. He looked up hopefully. "Uh, no, I don't have any ideas, just a question. Um, well not that I disagree or anything, but why are we treating Advin so well? Especially after he tried to kill you?" Tosh was honestly puzzled and Owen nodded in agreement. Jack glanced at Gwen and Ianto.

"Either of you figure it out?"

Gwen shook her head, but Ianto had an answer. "I'm only guessing," he said. "But I believe it's because he won't be expecting it." He looked up at Jack. "I'd say the life of a prisoner in the Time Agency would be much less pleasant."

Jack grinned. "Exactly."

"Uh, I still don't get it," said Owen. "Why exactly are we being nice?"

"To show that we are nothing like the Time Agency," Jack explained. "Also, I don't know what Advin has or hasn't been told about Torchwood, but I'll bet it didn't include things like "respectful treatment of prisoners" and "good meals". I want to break any preconceived ideas he may have been given about us."

"And maybe get him onside?" suggested Gwen.

"Maybe," Jack conceded. "But I won't be expecting that. Gaining some respect for how we treat him might be the best we can do."

There was a beeping, and Jack looked down at his wrist strap, then realised it wasn't coming from there. He looked over at Ianto, who was pulling Advin's wrist strap out of his jacket. He handed it to Jack.

"A message?" asked Gwen. Jack nodded, then pushed a button. A hologram appeared on the table in front of them, showing two people.

"Kerri!" Ianto gasped, at the same time Gwen said "That's Rye!" Jack gave them each a surprised look in turn, but then the holograms were speaking.

"_Advin, you idiot. I hope you're happy, you could be ruining everything! If I lose the tourney because of you-" _Kerri was cut off as the other man put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. She stepped back and stood with her arms crossed angrily.

"_Advin, you're a fool. I tried to tell you, and you didn't listen. This wasn't the way to go about getting information. Patience is a virtue, one day you'll learn that. I hope you don't learn it the hard way here._

"_Anyway, we don't think we can get you out. The supplies they sent us with aren't strong enough to get into a place like that. Best we can do is create a distraction, so we're going to do that. You'll have to use the opportunity in whatever way you can. We'll attack at midnight -we know two of their people will be out then. Not that it'll help much, but it's better than having them all there_."

"_And then_," said Kerri, "_we can continue. And I will beat you both, and we can get out of here. The sooner, the better. Understood?_"

"_Be ready, Advin_." Rye was seen to press a button on his wrist and the holographic message ended.

There was a moment's stunned silence.

"Well," said Jack. "That was interesting. First things first: you two recognised them?" He looked between Gwen and Ianto.

"I met Kerri yesterday," said Ianto. "That's why my sister wanted me to meet her for coffee; so she could introduce us."

"I met Rye last week," said Gwen. "I ran into my girlfriends and one of them introduced him as her new boyfriend. Rhys said they had dropped by our place the other night too, asking about wedding photos again."

"And Advin had been to visit my parents," said Tosh. "They've been infiltrating our friends and families.."

The room was suddenly very sober.

Jack cleared his throat. "I recognise these two from the Agency." He pressed a button to start the message over again, then paused it, leaving the two holographic people standing frozen in the middle of the boardroom table. "Kerri Somerfield and Ryson Lee. I didn't know Kerri well, but she was a fierce competitor in training. Ryson was a friend. Not particularly close, but a friend."

"Wait a sec," said Owen. "Are you telling me we've got three people from your past and you haven't slept with _any_ of them?" he asked incredulously.

Jack glared at him. "Contrary to popular belief, I don't sleep with every person I meet."

"Something else," said Ianto, cutting in. "I ran into Detective Swanson at the cafe, and she recognised Kerri. From the murder scene Gwen and Tosh attended?" He glanced at them and they nodded. "She said Kerri and another man had been asking one of the PC's about Torchwood."

"Did they tell them anything?" asked Jack.

"Apparently not. The PC thought they were American conspiracy theorists."

"The warehouse!" cried Tosh. Everyone turned, surprised by the outburst. "Wait here!" She jumped out of her seat and dashed out of the room. The others looked at each other in surprised confusion as they heard her run across the main hub. A minute later she was back, waving some papers at them.

"Here it is. A month ago. Unpredicted rift activity similar to John Hart's arrival but more consistent with three people instead of one."

There were groans as the others realised what she was talking about.

"So Advin was lying outright about having been sent alone," said Owen.

"And didn't both the weevil problems and the rift monitor problems start about three weeks ago?" asked Gwen.

"You think they caused both?" asked Ianto.

"Did you guys get Advin's fingerprints?" asked Jack. The team looked at each other. No one had thought to.

"Gwen, Owen, when we're done here, run his prints. See if we can find our mysterious weevil slayer."

"It might be one of the other two," Owen pointed out.

"But it won't hurt to check Advin out. Let's watch this again." Jack pressed the button again and they watched the two holograms make their little speech. Ianto thought Kerri didn't look nearly as attractive with a scowl on her face. She looked older too.

"She said a 'tourney', and she'll 'beat them'," said Owen when the message had ended. "So they're competing against each other in some way."

"Then why help Advin escape?" asked Toshiko.

"Brotherhood," said Jack. "Like what the police and the army and other such forces have. Kerri may intend to win, but she won't leave him behind unless she has to."

"They're going to attack at midnight tonight. We need to get ready," said Ianto.

"Right," said Jack. "Toshiko, I want you to change all the access codes for the mainframe, I don't want them getting in by hacking the system. Ianto, manually lock and disconnect the invisible lift from the power. Owen and Gwen, move Advin to a cell on one of the bottom levels. Get his prints while you're there. I'll handle the garage and tourist office defences."

"What about the other entrances? The tunnels," asked Ianto.

"There's other entrances?" squeaked Toshiko. "I didn't know there were others. They're not part of the lockdown program!" Gwen and Owen were equally surprised.

"I doubt they would have had time to find those entrances," said Jack. "And relax Toshiko -they're kept permanently sealed. No-one's used them for over a decade." He paused. "Ianto, set up proximity alarms just inside the tunnel entrances, to be sure." Ianto nodded.

"Should I tell Rhys I'm not coming home tonight, then?" asked Gwen.

"No, you're still going home," Jack replied. "They've obviously been watching us -Rye said they know 'two of us will be out' -he meant you and Owen. So you and Owen will go just like normal. We don't want them to realise we've had warning."

"Besides," said Owen, "it could be useful for two of us to be outside the lockdown. If anything goes wrong.."

"It won't," said Jack. "Now, let's get to work."

They hurried out of the boardroom. Jack caught Toshiko's arm on the way. "I want you to go home to sleep as per normal this afternoon, understand? You'll still have a few hours to finish anything you need to when you get back."

Toshiko nodded. "Honestly, I was still planning to. I'm too tired not to, even with all the adrenaline from this." Jack put a comforting hand on her shoulder and wished there was more he could do for his team. They'd only been using the sleep roster for 10 days but it felt like a month -humans just weren't cut out to be on alert 18 hours a day with no time off. He hoped this would all be resolved soon so he could give them a break.

And not for the first time, he was thankful for Owen's continued presence. Despite the trouble -and guilt -surrounding Owen's death and undeath, it was a bonus to have someone around who didn't need to sleep, or worry about any other physical needs. Splitting 24 hours into four or five full sleeping periods would have been impossible. Owen's new status amongst the weevils was an unexpected boon too.

Jack looked up to where Ianto was securing the invisible lift. There was a series of balconies and gantries around the walls of the central hub, and one ran just behind the pneumatic arm which controlled the replacement step. The lift was currently in it's lowered position, so Ianto manually locked the pneumatic arm and turned off it's remote control unit. The false step could not be removed now until someone climbed back up there to unlock it.

Several floors down, Owen and Gwen were fetching Advin. Gwen had gone ahead and furnished a cell on the second-lowest of the nine levels with a chair and small table, as well as bedding. There was a notebook and pen, a glass and a jug of water. They advised Advin he was being moved to a slightly more hospitable cell, without offering any particular explanation as to why. He was cuffed with plastic ties for the journey again, but he didn't make a fuss, until he saw the new cell and what it came with.

"Er, can I ask a question?" he said, as Owen cut the 'cuffs' off again. Gwen stood back with a tranquilliser ready, but Advin showed no interest in escaping.

"Sure," said Owen.

"Do you always treat your prisoners this well?"

Owen was forced to grudgingly admit that Jack had been right. Advin had clearly been expecting rougher treatment.

"When we can be. Some, like your neighbour Janet, wouldn't appreciate some of the comforts we've given you. But we're no meaner than necessary."

"Why?"

"Sorry?"

"Why aren't you harsher? I'm a prisoner, you could torture me, leave me without food or bedding, or at least skimp on the quality. But you don't."

Owen shrugged. "What good would that do? It's not the way we do things here. We don't attack unless provoked, don't kill if we can merely incapacitate." _Although it's a good thing you fell to us, and not Torchwood One under Hartman's regime_, he thought.

Advin shook his head as if unable to understand it, and Gwen and Owen left him to mull over the question.

They found Jack in the tourist office, fiddling with a couple of small blue cylinders.

"Owen, grab that screwdriver and take the button off the counter, will you? I've already disconnected it." Owen did, and crouched to start removing the big red button that operated the secret door to the hub. He'd thought that was hilarious when he started working for Torchwood -could it have been any more obvious? Really?

"What are they?" asked Gwen, looking at the items Jack was playing with.

"Proximity alarms," said Jack. He tapped one side of one, then waved his hand in front of it. The PDA on the counter lit up with an alert. "They sense movement; they let us know." He took the one he had just activated, and ducked out the office door, reappearing a moment later. He grabbed another, and secured it to the ceiling above the entrance.

"Couldn't you just follow them on the CCTV?" Gwen said as she watched.

"CCTV can be turned off, or short circuited, or they could simply break or block the cameras," said Jack. "It's a little obvious. The signals from these can't be blocked, and they're more subtle. They're not likely to spot them or know how to turn them off." He moved around the counter to place another in the storeroom, then entered the dim passage and reached up to place one above the secret door. He handed the PDA and a box with more blue cylinders in it to Gwen, and she followed him as they worked their way down the stairs, placing one every second level, and a final one on the ceiling above the cog door.

The cog door rolled open for them and they saw Ianto emerging from the lower levels on the other side of the room.

"All done?" asked Jack.

"Four proximity alarms set and activated," he replied, waving his PDA at Jack.

"How did you know about the tunnel entrances?" asked Gwen as he reached them.

"I know everything about this place," Ianto smiled. "Part of my job." They continued to prepare the hub's defences.


	15. Chapter 15

Before long, Toshiko had gone home. Ianto busied himself making a fresh round of coffees and Owen headed back to the lab to check his weevil medicine. Jack had disappeared into his office and closed the door, leaving Gwen at a loose end. She sat down on the lounge with a sigh.

"You ok?" asked Ianto, putting down a mug in front of her.

"I hate the waiting game," she said.

He nodded. "I know what you mean. If they truly don't attack until midnight, that gives us more than 9 hours still. It's going to be a long wait."

"And worse, by then I'll be at home again. It feels like every time something is finally happening lately, it's just in time for me to go home. I end up awake all night, wondering what's going on. Then when I'm here, everything's quiet and I can't stay awake." She yawned, as if to prove her point. Ianto chuckled.

"Well, we still need to go through the armoury and check the weapons we'll need tonight. I mean, hopefully we won't need them, but we'll need to have them ready at least. You can help me with that after we've finished our coffees."

Gwen nodded. "And then I might have a nap on the couch."

* * *

The first weevil alert sounded early that night, so Owen headed out before Toshiko had returned. A short while later she arrived, and Gwen headed home, giving strict orders that they should call her if they needed anything at all. Ianto was tempted to put a sedative in her drink to make sure she slept, but decided against it considering she had to drive home.

They set about locking down the hub once she was gone. Ianto locked the tourist office, closed and locked the hidden door manually, then took the lift down. He removed the keys from the complicated lock outside the cog door, and stepped into the main hub. As soon as he was through, Toshiko tapped a command into her keyboard and the hub locked down. The cog door rolled shut and locked. Nothing much else appeared to happen, though Ianto looked around expectantly.

"I set up a silent lockdown," explained Toshiko. "Lights continue to operate at normal levels, so the lights will dim shortly for the overnight shift. If any alarms are triggered, they'll flash on our workstations and PDAs, but there won't be any sounds. That way our attackers won't be able to hear any alarms and know that we've had warning."

Tosh stayed at her workstation whilst Jack and Ianto headed down to Advin's cell. They avoided Advin's line of sight, but manually sealed and locked the doors at each end of his level, then the main entrance to the cells, and then the final door between the main hub and the lower levels. Advin wouldn't be able to hear anything that happened in the main hub from his level anyway, but this would make double sure. And should Advin escape, or the other Agents get in, it would be a slow process to get through all those doors.

They returned to Toshiko's workstation.

"Bring up Advin," requested Jack. Toshiko tapped a few keys and one of her monitors switched to show the CCTV. The young man was sitting on his bed-come-bench, writing in the notebook.

"I flicked over a minute ago to see what he did when you locked the doors," said Toshiko. "He stood up to have a look around, but settled back down again pretty quickly."

"I wonder what he's writing," said Ianto.

"Nothing helpful to us," replied Jack. "All part of the training with the Agency. Writing is an excellent way to stay sane whilst imprisoned, but there's a lot of do's and don'ts on what you should write. It's most likely a very detailed description of his cell, or something like that." He rested a hand on Toshiko's shoulder. "Keep him on your screen and yell if he does anything interesting."

The wait was tedious, but the three team members didn't dare do anything but remain ready. Tosh and Ianto double checked their weapons. Jack checked in with Owen every half hour, but it was a perfectly normal weevil run, just like every other night in the last three weeks. Tosh constantly refreshed the alerts. All of the alarms they had set were listed in a column down one of Tosh's screens and numbered, and repeated on their individual PDAs. Finally, at 11:45pm, the proximity alarm outside the tourist office started flashing.

"Bring up the CCTV," ordered Jack. Tosh tapped her keyboard but only static appeared.

"They've disrupted the signal."

"The one inside the office?"

The tourist office came up on the screen. The door handle was moving, obviously being jiggled from the other side. A moment later the door opened and the second proximity alarm started flashing. They barely got a glimpse of a person before that camera was disrupted too and showed nothing but fuzzy static.

"And _that _is why we're using the proximity alarms," muttered Jack. The external proximity alarm had stopped flashing but the internal office one continued. Then the storeroom one joined it.

"It's almost as good as CCTV," agreed Tosh. "At least we know exactly where they are." The two alarms inside the office continued to flash. And flash, and flash.

"Not _quite _as good as CCTV," commented Ianto drily, after several minutes without any change.

"What the hell are they doing?" muttered Jack. Several more minutes passed before the next sensor started flashing. At the same time, the one in the main tourist office stopped.

"They've got in through the storeroom," said Ianto.

"And now, they'll take the stairs, since the lift doesn't operate when the hub's locked down," said Jack. The proximity alerts placed along the passageway went off one after the other, before each turned off again. The first sensor at the top of the stairs started flashing. "Tosh, stay behind your workstation. Ianto, I want you on the far side of the door." Jack took up his own position opposite the cog door at the base of the water tower. Jack and Ianto still had their PDAs with them, and all three watched as the proximity alarms in the stairwell were set off one by one. They readied their weapons, and watched the cog door.

There was silence. Then a different alert popped up on their screens.

****Message Activated****

Nothing else happened.

"Jack?" Toshiko hissed.

He held up a hand and smiled at her reassuringly. "I left them a message, that's all," he said quietly. They returned to watching the door.

* * *

Outside the cog door, the two Time Agents paused, considering their next move. Then Rye chuckled.

"We're expected," he said. Stepping forward, he picked up a small cube that had been left stuck to the centre of the cog door. He pressed one side, and a holographic Jack appeared.

"_Ryson Lee and Kerri Somerfield. It _has_ been a while. I'd love to say it's good to see you, but I'm not so sure it is. Something about being the target of a mission puts me off somewhat._

_You can try and get through this door if you like, but I've a strong belief that you haven't got anything capable of taking it down, so maybe you could spare us the clean up bill and just leave? Advin won't be getting out of his cell tonight no matter what you do, so there's not really a lot of point wasting all this time._

Jack's mood switched from flippant to menacing in a heartbeat. _And while you're listening, here's a formal warning: if you mess with me or mine, I will come after you. Leave me alone. Leave my colleagues alone. Leave my city alone. If you don't, I will make sure you're sorry._

The hologram vanished. Kerri was seething.

"That arrogant piece of crap! Who does he think he is? 'His' city? He thinks he can do anything he wants and get away with it just by telling us to leave him alone?"

"Kerri," said Rye in frustration. Kerri was hot-blooded to say the least and her constant anger was getting on his nerves. "He's right, you know we can't get through this door." He tapped it. "Solid as a rock. Or more, actually."

Kerri was pulling small explosives out of her pocket and lining them around the edge of the cog door. "I don't care," she said. "We're not here to get in, we're here to create a distraction. We can still do that."

* * *

The heavy cog door didn't allow sound through, and they'd blocked the small window in it earlier so the Agents couldn't get a good look. So the three Torchwood team members had no idea what was going on outside the door, only that the Agents were still there. The one proximity alarm in that area continued to flash at them menacingly.

After several minutes of silence, they jumped when an explosion boomed above their heads. Jack ducked and covered his head as bits of plaster and concrete fell around him.

"Tosh!" he called.

"Getting it!" she yelled back, tapping commands into the computer. More deafening explosions went off above them. The screech of a angry pteranodon came through to them. Tosh got the CCTV on the Plass up. "There's nobody up there," she yelled. "They must be setting them off remotely!"

Booming sounds from the cog door replaced the ones above and they each backed off a few steps, but the door held. A long fifteen seconds later, silence fell again. Nothing had gotten through the door -even the reinforced glass had held, though Jack suspected that was probably because none of the explosives had been placed directly against it. The door was still entirely sealed -not even the air had been disturbed on their side.

There were clouds of dust drifting down from the ceiling however. Jack took a moment to look up and check the invisible lift, but it still appeared to be whole. There was a crack in part of the ceiling near it that would need some attention, but he was certain they weren't in any immediate danger.

He glanced down at his PDA and was pleased to see the proximity alarm at the bottom of the stairs reactivate. He heard the relieved sighs from Ianto and Toshiko as the alarms went off in reverse order, eventually finishing with the storeroom, the tourist office, and then the external sensor.

"Right," he said. "Ianto, get up there and check the stability -if you don't think it'll hold weight we'll have to fence off the water tower on the surface. Check Myfanwy while you're there. Toshiko, are those cameras back yet? I want to be sure they're gone."

She tapped a few keys as Ianto jogged up the nearest stairs. "No, not yet," she said. "But.."

"But what?" He jogged over to check what she was seeing and the movement dislodged some plaster and dust from his shoulders.

"The external proximity alarm hasn't stopped going off. They haven't left yet."

"That's odd," said Jack. "Those alarms are only sensitive to a few metres -they should be further away than that by now. What are they waiting for?"

* * *

Owen was wondering when he'd started letting Gwen talk him into ridiculous ideas like this one. He was certain that Jack was going to kill them both, for good, when he found out -and yet, Owen had shared Gwen's desire to be there. It had been impossible to stay away from the hub, knowing it was under attack. And so he found himself outside the tourist office now, holding a gun at two Time Agents.

They'd obviously not been expecting he and Gwen to be standing there. The man had walked out first and come to such an abrupt halt that the woman had nearly walked into him -if it had been any other situation, it would have been comical.

"Hands up and away from your wrist straps," ordered Gwen. Oh god, thought Owen. They both had their guns out but the Time Agents didn't look intimidated. They stepped away from each other, the man moving opposite Gwen and the woman in front of Owen. He sized her up and knew she would be a tough opponent. He'd met so many other women over the years who felt they had something to prove against men. Here was another. Kerri, that was the name.

"Move aside and let us pass, and we won't harm you," said the man firmly. Owen glanced at him. Rye. He gave the impression of a level headed individual -the first person from Jack's time he'd have considered that way. But right now he was angry.

"No," Gwen was answering back. "You will keep your hands where we can see them-"

As if there had been a signal, both time agents attacked without warning. They closed the distance between them in seconds and Owen was suddenly disarmed. He grappled with Kerri, unable to help the instinctive desire to restrain but not hurt the woman. Especially since he could no longer feel any sensation from his fingers, he was afraid to grip too hard -but Kerri was making it difficult.

"Come on, fight me properly," she growled, and Owen stopped holding back. He lunged at her, catching one arm and twisting it behind her but a second later she had him off balance. He fell but took her with him. They wrestled, both half on the ground, until Kerri managed to wrench an arm free, and he saw a short needle in her hand, like the one Advin had used on Jack. He twisted away but she came at him again and he couldn't move quickly enough. She stabbed it into his neck with a yell of triumph and pushed him away.

Owen pulled the needle out and took a step back towards the tourist office, putting some distance between them. He glanced around to see that Gwen was already behind him -Rye had fought her only long enough to disarm her and get past. He watched as Kerri stared at him, and Rye's brow furrowed.

"Why aren't you dying?" Kerri demanded. "That's impossible, you should be nearly dead."

Owen raised a hand to his neck where the needle had stabbed him, but his sense of touch was absent and he couldn't feel anything. The time agents continued to stare at him.

"Why isn't he dead?" asked Kerri again. A note of uncertainty had entered her voice, possibly even fear.

"What are you?" demanded Rye. "You can't be human." Owen shrugged.

"He's as human as I am," said Gwen behind him. Rye glanced at her as if that threw her ancestry into doubt as well, rather than confirming Owen's. Kerri shook her head as if unable to comprehend what was happening.

Rye murmured her name behind her and she took another step back. "Come on, let's get out of here," she said. They reached for their wrist straps in unison and vanished in a glow of blue-white light. Owen and Gwen were left staring at the empty board walk, their guns still discarded on the ground some metres away.

Then the tourist office door opened and Jack burst out.

"What the hell did you two think you were doing!" Owen winced. Jack glared at them both in turn. "Pick up your guns, then get inside. NOW!"


	16. Chapter 16

It was two very subdued Torchwood employees who walked through the cog door a minute later, followed by one very angry Jack. Gwen and Owen stood near the couch and looked nervous.

"Tosh?" asked Jack.

"They're gone, no sign of them anywhere."

Jack looked up to where Ianto was clattering down the stairs from the balcony above. "How's it holding?"

"Doesn't look like it'll come down by itself, but I wouldn't trust it to hold more than one or two people. Someone jumping or running might bring it down."

Jack nodded and turned to the other two. Gwen tried to get in first.

"Jack I'm sorry, it was my-"

"Cut it Gwen. I'm not interested in hearing whatever reasons and excuses you may have right now. Time for that later. Now, are either of you hurt?"

Gwen shook her head. "May have twisted my wrist awkwardly when Rye disarmed me, but it's only a little sore -not even sprained."

Owen reached a hand to his neck again, but still couldn't feel anything. "Kerri stabbed me with a needle -like the one that Advin got you with." Jack immediately moved forward to take a closer look at Owen's neck. There was a tiny hole and the skin was discoloured.

"Looks like the poison's just sitting underneath your skin. Go grab a needle and I'll draw it out -can't risk leaving it there. And wash your hands while you're there -that stuff killed me in seconds, we can't afford for anyone else to come into contact with it." Owen obediently walked over to wash his hands at the sink just inside the autopsy room, then headed down the stairs to find a needle.

"Jack, we've got company," said Tosh from her workstation. "Local police approaching the Plass."

"Someone must have reported the explosions at the water tower," said Ianto.

"Gwen, get up there and keep them back -we don't need anyone falling in and creating a big hole in our ceiling right now. Ianto, find some rope or something to cordon off the area."

"The cops will have police tape and barricades in their cars, we could commandeer some of that," suggested Gwen.

"Alright, do that. Both of you, get up there now." Gwen & Ianto hurried out the cog door. "Tosh, what's Advin doing?"

She glanced over to the screen where the CCTV in Advin's cell was still displayed. "He appears to be asleep. Pretty sure he hasn't noticed any of it," she reported.

Jack nodded. "Good. He's twelve levels underground; none of those explosions should have been big enough to be felt down there."

Owen came back from autopsy with a needle and handed it to Jack, who carefully extracted as much of the poison from him as possible, then handed the needle back. Owen looked at it critically. It was only a few ml.

"That's not much, considering how effective it is," he commented.

"Just be glad you couldn't be killed by it," said Jack. "Be glad it was you that was stabbed and not Gwen."

Owen nodded sombrely and took the poison-filled needle back into autopsy, storing it away carefully. Jack stared down the railing above.

"Given that you're not usually back for several hours yet, I'm assuming you haven't finished dealing with all the weevils tonight?"

"No." Owen couldn't look at him.

"Get to it then, and come back once you're done." Owen nodded and was relieved to escape the hub once more.

"OK, Tosh," Jack sighed. "Let's put everything back to normal. I'll be replacing the broken locks in the tourist office if you need me."

Twenty minutes later, Ianto and Gwen re-entered the tourist office. The constables had been relieved to see them, it turned out: they'd been hoping for a quiet night when a call about 'explosions' had come in, and they were hoping against hope that it wasn't a terrorist attack on their shift. So when Torchwood had turned up, told them to cordon off the damaged tower and then leave it to them, they'd been only too happy to comply.

Jack had finished replacing the broken lock on the front door of the office, and was doing a makeshift job on the damaged storeroom. It looked like Kerri had simply used one of their small explosives to blow the lock apart, but it had caused enough damage to the door frame and the door itself that a new lock couldn't just be fitted. So Jack was nailing the whole thing shut instead.

"I'll call around tomorrow, see about getting a new door," offered Ianto, looking through the beaded curtain.

Jack nodded. "Gwen?"

"Yeah Jack?" she responded from behind Ianto.

"Go inside, go down to my bunker and try to get some sleep."

There was the noise of movement and Ianto moved back to let Gwen past. She appeared in the doorway. "I can't just sleep in your bed, Jack," she protested.

"Gwen, it's one in the morning. If you go home now you'll only have two hours before you have to be up again. You'll get more sleep if you stay here, and frankly, I don't know that you're in any condition to be driving anyway." Gwen ruefully had to admit she knew what he meant -she looked terrible. The lack of sleep, particularly in the last few days, was really catching up to her. She nodded, and passed Ianto again on her way to the hidden door, which was standing open. Ianto stayed behind.

"Good thing they didn't damage the secret door," he observed. "Not so easy to hide damage there."

"I don't think it matters," said Jack. "I don't imagine we'll have the time or energy to spare to have the tourist office open for a while anyway."

Ianto pulled out the pieces which made up the hidden door's release button and set about reassembling it. Jack finished hammering away in the storeroom and came out to lean against the wall behind him, watching as the pieces were fitted back together and screwed into place.

"Tell me something," Jack said quietly. "What is it about me that makes people so ready to disregard my orders?"

Ianto paused. Jack was taking this badly.

"I don't believe it's you, Jack," he said eventually. "It's the nature of this job. We face things we don't understand, things we feel we can't possibly be a match for. It causes rash and irresponsible decision making in people who would cope well in normal situations."

Jack sighed, and slid down until he reached the ground. Ianto shifted back to lean against the wall beside him. "Even though I've proven over and over that I know what I'm doing, that doesn't count for anything?"

"They thought they were helping. They were being our backup."

"Yeah, but they only made things worse. I told Kerri and Rye to leave. And when they did, there were two of my team pointing guns at them."

Ianto suddenly realised why it was bothering Jack so much. Gwen and Owen hadn't just disobeyed orders. They'd put themselves in serious danger, and on top of that, they'd undermined any respect the time agents might have had for Jack. As far as they were concerned, Jack had double-crossed them.

There was nothing to say that would fix that, so Ianto leaned forward again and finished putting the hidden door release together. He hooked up the wires that had been tucked under the counter, and tested it. The door swung open and closed on cue. Ianto stood and offered Jack a hand up, and they headed back into the hub.

To their surprise, Gwen was sitting on the couch. Jack frowned as she looked up guiltily.

"I can't sleep," she explained. "Adrenaline, nerves.. probably overtired, too. I'm wide awake."

"Go back to my bunker, I'll be there in a minute," he replied. He watched as she climbed back down the ladder, then tapped his comms. "Owen, I need a sedative for Gwen. Something short term, just to make her fall asleep."

"_Left hand cupboard, middle shelf. The short-term stuff's near the front,_" came the response a moment later.

"Thanks." Jack went down into the autopsy bay, fetched the appropriate tablet and a glass of water, and took them down to his bunker. Gwen was sitting on the bed, and her eyes widened when she saw the tablet. Jack resisted the urge to roll his eyes. If he hadn't retconned her for mistakes in the past, why would he start now?

"It's just a sleeping tablet," he said. "You need sleep; this will help you get it." Gwen nodded, relieved.

"Jack, I'm sorry, I just couldn't stay away, I had to come and see what was happening," she rushed, desperately. Jack held up his hand to stop her again.

"We'll talk about this later, when everything's settled down. But make sure you don't disobey me again, or it might be you that gets stabbed with the poison needle next time."

Gwen paled and nodded as she considered how lucky she'd been. If it had been her facing Kerri instead of Owen..

"See you in a few hours," said Jack. She watched as he climbed the ladder, leaving her alone. Moments later, she sank into a dreamless sleep.

The rest of the night was uneventful. Tosh returned all their systems to normal status, and kept an eye on the CCTV, but the Plass was quiet. She finally had a chance to run Advin's fingerprints through the system that Gwen & Owen had gotten earlier, and she was both pleased and perplexed to find Advin was indeed the maker of the weevil flu. She showed Jack the results, and he decided they needed to have another chat with Advin in the morning.

Ianto tried to wake Gwen a few hours later, but she was heavily asleep. He left her to sleep in -she clearly needed it. When it was light out and the cafes were opening for the morning, Ianto went out and bought breakfast for the team and their prisoner.

Ianto approached Advin's cell, a ham and cheese croissant in the paper bag in his hand. The young time agent was awake, sitting on the bench and staring sleepily at the wall opposite.

"Breakfast is served."

Advin looked over, surprised. "Wow, the service here really is something. Meals served by the man himself?" He accepted the food that Ianto held out and took it to the little table.

Ianto relocked the cell and chuckled. "Well, perhaps I'm not really the director."

Advin frowned. "You're not."

"No."

"So who are you then?"

"Ianto Jones: field agent, archivist, general maintenance and chief caffeine provider. " Ianto couldn't help the grin that spread across his face.

"You're not management at all?"

Ianto shrugged. "I thought you'd have noticed by now, we're not a very big team. We don't need much management."

"But someone has to be in charge?"

"Oh yes. We have a Captain."

Advin's jaw dropped. "Harkness is in charge?"

"That's right," said Jack from the doorway. He walked over to stand beside Ianto in front of the glass wall.

Advin put the croissant down, suddenly not as hungry as he'd thought. He watched as Jack squeezed Ianto's shoulder in a familiar gesture.

"Thanks Ianto, you can go. Get Gwen up and get some sleep yourself."

Ianto walked away, and Jack turned back to Advin. "I believe you wanted to have another chat?"

Advin eyed him. "You're looking well."

"I'm good at healing."

"So it would appear." He paused. "So, you didn't just manage to get promoted quickly, you got to be in charge. That is impressive."

"Thank you."

Advin shook his head. "What'd you do, charm your way to the top? Bribe? Remove the competition?"

Jack frowned. "No. I earned it."

"Well, I suppose you had to do something with yourself once you were stranded here." Jack started -did Advin know more than he was letting on?

Advin saw the reaction and grinned. "That's right, I figured it out. When I stole your manipulator the other day, I figured I'd just teleport out. But now I know why you stay here. It doesn't work, does it? You couldn't get back if you wanted to."

Jack relaxed again. Advin didn't know anything. He shrugged. "Yeah, the teleport and time vortex manipulator functions are inactive at the moment."

"Inactive? Interesting way of saying broken."

"No, it's not broken as such. Those functions have just been.. turned off." Jack examined his leather strap as if some new feature was going to appear. "They've been turned back on and used before. But I don't generally need them these days."

Advin shook his head slowly, in disbelief. "A time agent who doesn't need to time travel. Amazing."

"That's ex-time agent, remember? But I'm not here to talk about me, because this -the whys and hows of me being here -_this _is stuff you should already know. So why don't you know? When I was at the Agency, the emphasis on research was huge."

Advin grimaced and pushed the paper bag away.

"No answer? Maybe I was half-right about you being a rogue. Maybe you didn't leave, but you cheated on the homework."

"Don't you dare suggest that! I told you before, I would never betray the Agency the way you did!" Advin growled.

Jack grinned. "Ooh, touchy." Advin realised Jack was baiting him. He took a breath to calm himself and didn't reply. "OK," said Jack. "Can you at least confirm this: for whatever reason, you came here without having done all the research on myself & Torchwood that you would normally have done?"

Advin hesitated, then nodded. "That's right."

"Why?" asked Jack, frustrated. "I can't imagine a scenario where that makes sense."

Advin shook his head. "I can't say."

Jack let out his breath in frustration, and paced away from the cell for a moment before returning.

"Ok, let's try something else. Why did you make the weevils sick?"

"What are weevils?"

"The big ugly guys living in the sewers."

"Oh, them. What makes you think I made them sick?" Advin asked lightly.

"We found the contaminated bottles, and they were covered in your fingerprints."

Fingerprinting. How old fashioned. But reliable.

"You must be good at biochemistry to have modified a virus that way," Jack suggested.

Advin grinned cheekily. "There was a girl taking advanced biomanipulation that I liked. It never got me anywhere with her, but it turned out I was rather good at it."

"But why?"

Advin shrugged. "To cause problems for you. It didn't quite go to plan, really -didn't seem to bother your weevil boy all that much. Though it does keep him rather busy of an evening now, doesn't it?"

"That's Dr Harper to you," growled Jack. "Won't be for much longer anyway -he's developed a remedy." Jack shook his head. "Never thought I'd see the day we'd be medicating the weevils.."

Jack couldn't believe Advin had gone to so much trouble to make the weevils sick, simply to try and cause problems for his team. There a moment of silence again. Advin seemed content to wait for the next question. Jack decided to move on.

"Next topic. What is the 'tourney'? In what way are you competing against Rye and Kerri?"

Advin was surprised for a moment before quickly schooling his features again. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Jack snorted. "Alright. Let's watch something together, then, shall we?" Without waiting for a response he sat down and leaned his back against the glass wall. He pulled out Advin's wrist strap and activated the message. He heard Advin's quiet intake of breath as Rye and Kerri's holographic selves appeared and went through their spiel again. When it finished, Jack turned slightly to look over at Advin.

"What do you think?"

Advin frowned. "Why would you let me see that?"

"It came in yesterday."

Jack watched as a range of emotions played across Advin's face. Surprise, then disappointment, then realisation and understanding.

"That's why I was moved to a new cell."

Jack nodded. "So you wouldn't hear anything. Mind you, we switched everything to silent mode anyway, so even Kerri & Rye didn't know how many alarms they tripped."

"They didn't get in then?"

"Only as far as we intended. So, you going to explain what the competition is?"

Advin sat back and ran a hand through his messy curls. He shook his head. "I really don't understand what's going on here, Harkness. I tried to kill you. You're aware that we've come here to cause trouble for you. Why are you still being polite?"

"I thought one of my team already explained to you. That's not the way we work."

"That's not what I was told."

"Oh? And what were you told?" asked Jack casually.

Advin froze, realising he'd said too much. He shook his head again, and Jack knew he wasn't going to say. He climbed to his feet.

"When you decide you're ready to tell me what's going on, let me know. I'd love to hear it." He didn't quite manage to hide the frustration in his voice as he walked away. Advin watched him go with a puzzled look on his face.


	17. Chapter 17

Ianto had finally managed to wake Gwen, who was apologetic in the extreme when she found out she'd overslept. Jack didn't mind -he ended up taking his break simultaneously with Ianto, which worked very nicely for him indeed. They both slept heavily -Jack needed the rest as much as the others after having skipped his break time several days in a row.

Shortly after Tosh left for her own shift, Jack and Ianto were out on the Plass trying to decide the best way of mending the surface when Gwen's voice came through their comms.

"_Jack, we have rift activity. It's reported to be in Butetown_."

"What does it say it is?"

"_Moderate, but it's a bio_."

"Grab Owen and get the SUV, pick us up on Stuart Street -do _not_ drive on the Plass."

Jack disconnected the comms, knowing Gwen would hurry. Ianto had been keeping the SUV fully stocked ready for any given situation, so he didn't need to tell them what to bring. He paused a moment to silently thank whatever forces were out there for the presence and forethought of his favourite Welshman -being able to rely on his preparations made life so much easier.

Within minutes the SUV screeched to a halt beside them and Jack & Ianto jumped in, and a short time later they were in Butetown. Owen pulled up and doors slammed.

"Rift monitor said it was about 150 feet ahead, in a backyard on our left," said Gwen.

"The portable monitor agrees," said Ianto, unable to hide the surprise in his voice. "135 feet now -moderate, and bio."

"Behind me," ordered Jack, taking the lead as he usually did when they were facing unknown alien life. Even species that were normally calm and communicative could be dangerous when panicking -and an unexpected trip through the rift tended to leave just about everyone in a panic.

Swinging open the gate, they headed straight around the side of the house, not bothering to knock on the door and introduce themselves to anyone who might be home. They rounded the corner and stopped behind Jack.

In front of them was a sad, if strange, sight. There were three small aliens -humanoid, but stick-thin, and only about a foot tall. Their skin was wrinkly and an off-grey colour, and they had no hair to speak of. They wore loincloth or sarong-style clothing wrapped around the waist.

Two of the aliens were standing in front of an egg-shaped object about three feet long and lying on it's side. It had dug into the grass where it had impacted, leaving a rounded groove several feet long. A hatch in the middle immediately identified it as some sort of pod or shuttle. The third alien was lying in the grass between the other two, clearly dead.

The two living aliens had looked up in alarm as the team came around the corner. One started to chatter at them in a high-pitched voice -whether it was threatening or pleading they couldn't tell. Jack held up his hands in the universal sign of placation, and it fell quiet again. Jack moved forward and knelt down a few feet from the aliens. The rest of the team instinctively held back. Jack pressed a few buttons on his wrist strap then looked back up at them.

"My name is Captain Jack Harkness. Do you know where you are?"

An computerised voice issued from wrist strap in a chatter reminiscent of the alien's speech. The aliens looked surprised for a moment, then the same one started chattering back. The wrist strap translated back to English.

"The system said Sol 3, but that can't be right. We were in the Kinrexian Galaxy just yesterday. We couldn't have gone so far that quickly."

"No, this really is Sol 3. There is a rift in time and space, and one end of it is here. You must have fallen into the rift somewhere, and it's spat you out here."

There was a look of dawning realisation on the aliens faces.

"A rift.." said the second alien, turning to the first. "And you told me my 'shoddy' repair job was messing with the instruments!"

"Well how was I to know!" retorted the first alien.

Jack cleared his throat. They stopped to look at him, and followed his gaze back to their dead companion. The second alien kneeled beside the body and ran a hand across it's forehead sadly.

"He was a good friend. He will be missed."

"I'm not sure what the Hrexian customs are.." said Jack uncertainly. The first alien looked up at him again, shaking his head.

"If we can fix the ship and be on our way, we will take him with us. There is a Hrexian colony only a few thousand light-years from here, we can honour him properly there."

"They can give us supplies for our long journey home too," agreed the other alien. "Unless we can go back the way we came?"

Jack shook his head. "The rift is dangerous and unpredictable, and you two were lucky. Many don't survive their first trip through it. Even objects don't usually come through unscathed."

They nodded. "The slow way back then," sighed the first, who was either the leader, or just naturally took that role. "The ship isn't badly damaged, but it may take some time to get everything back online. Do you know somewhere where we can work?"

Jack grinned. "That we can help with."

The aliens and their fallen companion were given a ride in the back of the SUV. Their egg-shaped ship was tied carefully to the roof of the vehicle, with a blanket to hide it and another couple wedged around it for stability. The aliens didn't seem particularly fearful or surprised by the human-sized world around them -although they did stare out the windows curiously. Jack's wrist strap continued to translate and the team were amused to hear them commenting on architecture and design styles of the buildings they drove past. They carefully watched their own words, too, knowing anything they said would be translated back to the aliens.

The Hrexians were given the boardroom to work in and left to their task. Gwen watched them on CCTV but they seemed to have everything they needed.

"Jack," she said as he passed her. He stopped.

"Gwen, what can I do for you?" The friendly -if a little sad -encounter with the aliens had improved Jack's mood immensely.

"The rift predictor," she said. "It was accurate again. That's twice in a row."

"So it is." He considered it. "If we assume that Rye and/or Kerri were involved in causing the inaccuracies before, then we'd have to wonder why they're not now. Of course, it explains why Tosh's modifications to the portable monitor weren't enough to track down the source of the disruptions. They were obviously taking the disruptive device with them, and leaving whenever you or Tosh went looking."

"Jack!" yelled Owen from the balcony. He'd disappeared back into the lab as soon as they'd gotten back.

"What?" returned Jack. On the CCTV, the Hrexians look up at the sound of the shouting.

"It's done," called Owen happily. "Ten litres of weevil medicine in five batches, ready for delivery."

Jack grinned. "Nice work. Fancy a trip to the underworld of Cardiff?"

"I think I would," Owen answered. "I'll be ready in five."

Gwen noticed the diminutive aliens go back to work, reassured by the men's tone of voice that nothing was wrong. Five minutes later Owen emerged with two plastic bags, containing five two-litre bottles. He also had fishing line and a sharp knife. Jack headed over to meet him at the cog door.

"Jack, wait," said Gwen. "What about the, uh, Hrexians?"

Jack was confused. "What about them? They're fine."

"No, I mean.. what if they need something? We won't be able to understand each other."

"Oh, right." Jack came back and searched Toshiko's workstation, straightening a moment later with an object in hand. "Use this -Toshiko discovered it works as a translator, remember?" Gwen nodded. "Just stick it to the wall in the room and it should automatically translate both ways."

"Thanks Jack," said Gwen, relieved.

"Right." He turned back to Owen. "Let's go."

A short time later Ianto wandered over to Gwen with a fresh coffee.

"Thanks love," she said, giving him one of her gap-toothed grins.

"You're welcome," he smiled. A message tone sounded and he reached into his pocket. He looked at the message and frowned, then put down his own mug to type a message back.

"Anything wrong?" asked Gwen.

"No," he replied. "Just Johnny thinking my sister tells me her plans more than she tells him. Which is probably true," he said, throwing a grin at Gwen. "But I still don't know where she is right now."

Gwen laughed, and then they both laughed again when her stomach grumbled loudly. "This bloody sleeping roster and all these endlessly long days," she complained good-humouredly. "It's thrown my eating pattern out. I'm hungry now, and it's still a couple of hours before dinner!"

"I think there's still some pasta in the fridge," Ianto suggested.

"Or..." Gwen grinned. "I could call my darling husband up and see if he can make some more lasagne for tonight. There is no food better than Rhys' lasagne!"

Ianto had to agree. Rhys was obviously a good cook but his lasagne was something else. Of course, he flat out refused to tell anyone the secret, saying only his future heirs would be allowed to know.

Ianto wandered into Jack's office as Gwen made the call. He looked over the paperwork scattered about but there was nothing urgent -the long shifts meant Ianto had been able to stay on top of everything, including making sure Jack did his own work. He noticed a request from UNIT that had a recommendation from Martha attached -UNIT requests were routinely ignored for a month or two in most cases, but when Martha wanted something they handled it quickly. He made a mental note to make sure Jack looked at that one soon.

He wandered back out to a frustrated looking Gwen. The call obviously picked up a moment later as her expression changed.

"Yes, it's Gwen here, I was wondering if Rhys was still at the office?" Her face dropped. "Oh, I see. No, no, I've been away for work, he probably just didn't want to worry me. Thanks Ruth." She hung up and looked at Ianto worriedly. "Ianto, what did Johnny say earlier?"

"Sorry?"

"About Rhiannon. What did Johnny say?"

"Just that she wasn't home yet and did I know where she was. Why?"

"Rhys isn't answering the home phone or his mobile and didn't show up to work today. Apparently he called in sick, left a message on the answering machine at 5am."

"So he's sick, he's asleep and he didn't hear the phone ring."

"No, no," Gwen shook her head in frustration. "Rhys is a light sleeper, and he sleeps worse when he's sick. And I called three times. Ianto," she gripped his arm, "those agents had been infiltrating our families!"

Ianto suddenly felt sick as the implications hit home. He pulled out his phone again and dialled his brother-in-law. "Johnny, it's Ianto. Did you find Rhi? ..no, look, when did you last see her? Do you know what her plans were? OK, thanks. No, no, I'm sure she's fine. I'll call if I hear anything." He turned back to Gwen but she'd already understood from Ianto's end of the conversation and was reaching up to activate her comms.

"Jack, where are you? They've got Rhys and Rhiannon!"

Jack and Owen made it back in record time. They'd managed to place weevil medicine in the four locations they identified previously, and were trying to locate the last contaminated bottle when Gwen's frantic call reached them. They had hung the last one where they stood -since they were upstream of the sick weevils already, Owen figured it ought to be enough, at least for now. Jack had called Tosh and had her come back in early -he wasn't keen to interrupt her sleep but they needed everyone for this.

Now they were all standing around the main workstation area in the hub. Jack would have preferred to use the boardroom, but the Hrexians were still using it.

"Right, what do we know?" he barked.

"Rhys called in sick at 5am this morning, but he's not answering the home phone or his mobile, which he would normally," said Gwen. She sounded almost calm, professional. The few minutes she'd spent waiting for the others to return had given her a chance to dry her tears and get focussed.

"Rhiannon took the kids to school this morning as per usual," said Ianto, sounding normal but looking stressed. "Johnny was picking them up on his way home, and she didn't have any other plans as far as he knew, except to try and catch up on the housework. There's been no sign of her at home since he got back this afternoon."

"Toshiko, check the CCTV for their addresses. Start with Gwen and Rhys's place, since we know roughly what time to look for." Tosh nodded and hurried over to her workstation. The others crowded around and watched as she accessed the local CCTV networks and narrowed down which cameras she wanted, then brought up footage from that morning. Before long, the street outside Gwen and Rhys' apartment was on screen, and they were watching as Rye and Kerri ordered Rhys to climb into his car at gunpoint. They climbed in after him, one in the passenger seat and one behind, and the car moved off.

"Oh my god oh my god," murmured Gwen. Jack put an arm around her shoulders.

"Steady. They don't want to hurt him, he's just a way of getting to us. To me."

"So how do we get him back?"

Jack's shoulders slumped a little. "I don't know yet. But we will. I promise you Gwen, we will get him back." He glanced back at the screen where Tosh had switched to Rhiannon's street in the estate. She was running the footage in fast forward when something caught her eye and she rewound it. Sure enough, Rhys's car was pulling up outside the house. They watched as Kerri went in, and a moment later Rhiannon emerged, coat, handbag and all, as though heading out for coffee. But she baulked when she saw the two men waiting in the car, and turned to question Kerri. A moment later Kerri drew her gun and Rhiannon was forced into the back seat. The car drove off.

"Can you follow them, see where they went?" Jack asked.

"I could," said Tosh, "but it would take a while. If you have any other way of tracking them.."

"We don't," said Jack.

Ianto thought of something. "Actually, can you track phones?" he asked. "Rhiannon wouldn't let me leave without Kerri's number the other day."

Tosh beamed. "Of course, that's perfect Ianto!" She took the slip of paper he handed her and set to work.

The rest of the team moved back while they waited for Tosh to work her magic.

"You know, it's odd," said Jack. "Normally when you take a hostage, you send a message with a list of demands. But... nothing."

"How would they have sent us a message?" asked Gwen. "I don't imagine we'd be expecting a letter, or an email.. would they even have email addresses?"

"No." Jack tapped the leather around his left wrist. "They could call or send a

message the same way Hart contacted me."

"What's about Advin's wrist strap?" asked Ianto.

"It's in my office.. of course!" Jack shouted with the realisation. "Ianto, you are brilliant tonight!" He ran into his office and opened a drawer in his desk.

"He says that every night," Ianto muttered, but the humour didn't quite reach his eyes. Jack bounded back out.

"You're right, there is a message waiting." He pressed a button and Kerri appeared.

"_Hello Harkness_," she sneered. "_We've guessed you've confiscated Advin's wrist strap, so we might as well continue to speak to you this way, hmm? Alternatively, Advin's been convinced to join your little band, in which case, Advin dear, please pass this message on._

_We have Rhiannon Davies and Rhys Williams. We have no intention of harming them, however, our hands may be forced if you don't cooperate. You can prevent any sort of harm coming to them by simply exchanging yourself for them. It's quite a good deal actually, we get one, you get two. Easy, no? _

_When you decide to do the right thing, Harkness, let us know, and we'll let you know the time __and place._"

Kerri disappeared. Jack swore under his breath.


	18. Chapter 18

"Advin!" Jack shouted as he reached the entrance to Advin's level in the cells. The young agent jumped to his feet. Jack opened the cell and grabbed him by the shirt, throwing him against the wall. "Where the hell are they?" he growled.

"Jack." Ianto stood in the doorway, Gwen hovering uncertainly behind him. Jack hesitated, then released Advin, who stayed stiffly against the wall. He cursed inwardly -dealing with other Time Agents always seemed to bring the worst out in him. He forced himself to take a step back.

"Rye and Kerri have kidnapped Ianto's sister and Gwen's husband," he said shortly. "Where would they have taken them?"

Advin looked worried but shrugged. "I wouldn't know." Jack growled again but Ianto interrupted by simply saying his name softly, again. Jack stopped. Advin quirked an eyebrow at Ianto. "Are you sure you're not the one in charge here?"

Ianto ignored the comment. "Why wouldn't you know?" he asked.

"We were working against each other," came the reply. "We knew each other's basic strategies but not the details of when, where, how."

"So you _were _in competition with each other," said Jack. "Why are the two of them against the one of you?"

Advin shook his head. "Technically, it's each man for himself. Or herself. But they decided to team up."

"And you chose not to work with them because?"

"I don't trust Kerri Somerfield. Only one of us can win, so I imagine she has plans for Rye to have an unfortunate accident. I didn't want her to target me the same way."

Jack nodded. He'd never trusted her either. He ran a hand through his hair, then abruptly sat down on one of the benches. He motioned for Advin to take the other. Ianto and Gwen stayed in the doorway.

"Listen. I understand that you were sent here to get me, but I am not going back. I honestly don't understand what I've done to deserve the Agency's attention after all this time, but I am a very different person to the one who used to work there. A lot has changed for me. And I certainly won't be going back without understanding why.

"So I'm asking for your help. Kerri and Rye have taken two innocent civilians, and want me to exchange myself for them. Which, actually, I'm willing to do. But I have to know _why_." Jack hissed the last word out.

Advin took a deep breath. He seemed to come to a decision.

"When we were sent here, we were given certain information about you. So, I want you to understand that when I say I'd like to help, I'm not basing that on you, just now, saying you've changed. I'm basing that on what I've seen. And from what I've seen.." he shrugged. "Either they were lying, or you have indeed changed."

Jack sat back, relief evident. "Tell me why you three are here."

Advin nodded. "Let me start at the beginning -though I'll try to make it brief," he said, acknowledging the anxious looks on Gwen and Ianto's faces. "There is a tournament running in the Time Agency to find the best agent. The champion, if you will. Missions were given ratings, and agents earned points according to how well they completed a mission and how difficult it's rating was. The points system ran for six months. At the end of that, the top three ranked agents were to be sent on a single mission, and the first to return successfully would win."

"So you, Kerri and Rye were the top three," said Gwen. She moved past Ianto to sit beside Jack.

"That's right," said Advin. "The competition earned a lot of interest, and everyone wanted to be at the top of the rankings. It certainly made us all work harder."

"And fetching me from the 21st century is the final test," summed up Jack. "OK, that explains why there's three of you, and why you're in competition. But it doesn't answer why I'm so important all of a sudden."

Advin shrugged. "I only know what I've heard. You were the Agency's poster boy, the perfect agent everyone aspired to be. Certainly that's how my class at the academy viewed you. Naturally it didn't look good when you cut and ran. All sorts of rumours went round -you'd been stealing money and artefacts. You'd been blackmailing someone high up. You'd been messing with the timeline for future profit. The only thing that could be confirmed was that you'd stolen a spaceship."

"What about now, when you were sent here? The agency usually tells you why a mission is necessary."

"They cited 12 (c), but we figured there was probably also a connection with whatever happened before you left."

"12 C?" asked Ianto.

"Messing with the timeline -with the intention of changing the course of history," said Jack. "But it's not true. Torchwood exists to protect the timeline."

"Really?" Advin was surprised.

All three Torchwood employees nodded. Then their comms sounded.

"_Jack, the Hrexians say their ship is ready. They're asking to see you_," said Tosh.

"Thanks for your help, Advin," said Jack, standing up.

"What are you going to do?" he asked.

"I don't know yet. But you've helped me to understand what's going on, for which I'm grateful."

Advin nodded. "So, this may be a bit presumptuous, but.. am I still a prisoner here?"

Jack paused, then his face lit up. "For now, yes, although please consider using the term 'guest'." He grinned as if it was a great joke and walked out, Ianto right behind him.

"Does his mood always change that quickly?" asked Advin, looking back at Gwen.

She smiled helplessly. "Yeah, pretty much." She locked the cell behind her and followed them up to the main hub.

* * *

Jack strode into the hub, and saw one of the Hrexians waiting with Owen near the lounge. He looked across to Tosh's workstation.

"Tosh, any luck with that phone number?"

She shook her head. "It was last used in a grocery store yesterday. Been turned off since then. Sorry." That was a blow to Ianto, but Jack focussed on the small alien awaiting him. Like before, he knelt down to speak. His hand flicked to his left wrist to activate the translation function, but before he could press anything, his wrist band started beeping, a regular pattern the others hadn't heard before.

Jack hesitated, then pressed a button. Rye appeared -not a recorded message this time, but a live call.

"Jack. I need to speak to you." Rye looked stressed and nervous. After a moment his eyes widened. "Is that a Hrexian? Jack, what the hell are you doing? Don't tell me the charges are legitimate?"

"Depends what charges you're talking about," Jack answered testily. "Why'd you call?"

"Like I said, I need to talk to you, alone. Just the two of us." Rye glanced around himself as if fearing he already had company.

"Sorry, no way I'm coming out to meet you alone," said Jack. "Even if you're keep your end of the bargain, you would be enough to knock me out and take me back before anyone could stop you. And I'm not going back."

Rye looked seriously troubled. "Alright, not alone then. Bring some back up, whatever. You can even pick the location. But make it quick!"

Jack had to admit, Rye's behaviour seemed genuine. "Out on the Plass, in the middle in plain sight. You won't come within eight feet of me, and my team will be there."

Rye nodded. "Be there in a minute." The hologram vanished. Jack sighed, and ran a hand through his hair. He returned his attention to the small alien in front of him, and managed to activate the translator without interruption this time.

"You wanted to see me?" he asked, returning as much normality to his voice as he could. The Hrexian nodded.

"We have completed our repairs. We are ready to leave. We are grateful for the assistance we have received from you and your people here, Captain."

Jack tilted his head in acknowledgement. "You're welcome. Always nice to be useful."

"We do need to get our ship to an open space in order to take off. Can you help?"

A few minutes later the team exited the tourist office with the ship on a trolley. The Hrexians had already placed their fallen comrade inside, and were walking along behind. Thankfully the sun had set an hour earlier and the Plass was dark and quiet. They wheeled it into the lower part of the oval-shaped area that made up the Plass.

"Wait here," Jack ordered Gwen and Ianto. "Tosh and Owen, with me. Weapons ready, all of you, and keep your eyes peeled. This could well be a trap. If anything goes wrong, get the Hrexians to safety, understand?" Gwen and Ianto nodded. "If all is well, bring the ship up to the middle of the Plass on my signal." The Hrexians automatically stayed behind with their ship when Jack walked off.

Jack strode up the Plass, and could easily see the lone figure waiting in the middle of the dark space. He sent Tosh and Owen out to circle the columns on either side and back him up. Then he approached.

"Ryson Lee," he said warily.

"Jack Harkness. Thank you."

"For what?"

"For agreeing to see me. I wasn't sure you would."

"I'm still not sure it was wise."

Rye shook his head. "I have no intention of trying to take you right now Jack. Not until I have some answers."

"Can your questions wait a moment? There are some Hrexians here wanting to get moving."

Rye's eyes narrowed. "Yes, the Hrexians. One of the things I wanted to ask you about."

"Let them be on their way, then we'll talk."

Rye paused. "Alright," he conceded.

Jack motioned toward the water tower. "Go over there and wait." He watched as Rye obediently walked away, noticing how much older the other man seemed. They had been good friends back at the Agency -having gone through the Academy together and lived in the same dorm for some of that. Not to mention hours of training, and partnering on several missions. Once, Jack had trusted this man. He wondered if he still could. Rye stopped outside the police tape cordon.

Jack turned and tapped his comms. "It's clear to bring them up."

A minute later Gwen and Ianto were lifting the ship off the trolley and placing it on the ground in the centre of the Plass. The leader of the two Hrexians approached Jack.

"Thank you again, Captain. I would say 'hope to meet you again', but I doubt the likelihood of such an event. Our home is far from here."

"Oh, I wouldn't discount anything too quickly," replied Jack with a smile. "I might be out your way some time."

"In that case, should you or any of your people ever be in the Kinrexian Galaxy, come by Dromenia and look up Tithat of the Yabuti clan. I would be pleased to return the hospitality you gave us."

"Thank you for the offer," Jack replied formally. The little humanoid followed his colleague into the ship, and the hatch closed. "Move back," said Jack, ushering Gwen and Ianto towards the side of the Plass. They watched as the tiny ship appeared to turn into a huge glowing ball of flame, then shot up into the atmosphere.

"Like a meteor in reverse," said Gwen, slightly in awe.

Jack wanted to laugh, but he couldn't forget the man waiting behind him. He tapped his comms so Tosh and Owen could hear him. "The four of you, spread out and cover all sides of the Plass. Ryson and I will be having a chat -if you notice anything unusual, tell me immediately."

He walked back into the middle and motioned to Rye, who came forward again to meet him there.

"Right. You have questions. So do I. So we take turns. I'll be generous and let you go first. Fire away."

Rye raised an eyebrow but didn't argue. "We were sent here on the understanding that you were being charged with intentionally changing the future. What do you have to say to that?"

"My job here is to protect the timeline. It doesn't make sense that I would go against that." A beat. "How is it that you came here without having done all the research on me? You should have known this already."

"Part of the rules for the final round. I'm assuming Advin told you about the Tournament?" Jack nodded, so he went on. "They said -in order to make it a more difficult challenge -we would be hitting the ground running and have to do all our research on site."

"That certainly explains a lot," Jack commented. "Your turn."

"If you're not messing with the timeline, what were you doing dealing with Hrexians in the 21st century?"

"They crash-landed here by accident. We gave them a place where they could safely repair their ship. That's what Torchwood does. It deals with alien threats, and helps inadvertent travellers to move on whilst hiding them from the general public. One day it won't be necessary, but in the meantime, Torchwood has been doing this job for over a hundred years. Now, tell me the hostages are safe and unharmed?"

Rye nodded. "Kerri's strict but she knows how to play this game. You have 24 hours from when the message was sent to send a reply, and they won't be ill-treated unless you refuse to cooperate. They may not be happy, but they're comfortable and have food and water."

Jack reached a hand to his ear and relayed this information to the rest of the team. He received quiet thanks from Gwen & Ianto and disconnected his comms again. Rye looked at him curiously.

"So I've noticed that you're in charge here, is that right? How'd you manage that so quickly?"

Jack chuckled at that one. "Major misconception there. Who says I've only been here a short while? Your lack of research has led you to make incorrect assumptions."

Rye raised an eyebrow. "You don't look more than a few years older than last time we met."

Jack shrugged. "I age gracefully. I've been here a lot longer than the four years it's been for you."

"How much longer?"

"Nope, my turn to ask the question. You were sent here to fetch me. You disrupted my work and my team's lives. You helped kidnap two of their family members. So why are you here asking questions, now?"

Rye hesitated. "I thought.." He sighed. "Something about this has felt wrong from the beginning, y'know? I never actually wanted to compete in the tourney at all, I just kept doing the missions I was given. But you know I was always good at it -generally these days I'm only assigned the harder jobs, and my record's always been good. So the points racked up regardless. And then Tamara wanted me to.."

"You're still with Tamara?" asked Jack. He grinned. "I never would have imagined you two would last so long."

Rye frowned. "Don't be ridiculous, you know we're married. It'll be five years next week."

"Married? Well. I suppose congratulations then. For the wedding and the upcoming anniversary." Rye just stared at Jack. Jack looked back, confused. "What?"

Rye shook his head uncertainly. "Jack, you were at our ceremony."

"Oh." _Five _years, dammit, _five_. Advin had said it was four years since Jack left the Agency -he should have remembered that. Rye & Tamara's wedding was lost in those two years of missing memories.

"Jack, what the hell happened to you?" Rye hissed.

Jack sighed. This could take a while. He looked around the Plass -it wasn't very late yet, there would still be some coffee shops open nearby.

"How long do you have? Is Kerri expecting you?"

"No. We're taking turns to watch the.. hostages." Rye seemed uncomfortable with the topic. "I have an hour or two." Jack tapped his ear again so the team could hear him.

"Let's take this somewhere more comfortable then, shall we?"

The team understood the message and Jack caught brief glimpses as they maintained a loose circle around them.

"Your people are quite good," murmured Rye after a minute.

"They have to be," Jack replied. They fell back into silence as Jack led the way through the dark streets. A few minutes later Jack indicated a late night cafe ahead. Ianto appeared a hundred feet ahead of them and slipped inside first. They didn't see the other three and Jack knew they'd have arranged themselves outside the shop.

Jack bought two coffees and took Rye to a table on the opposite side of the room from where Ianto was apparently engrossed in a newspaper.

"So," said Rye, accepting the hot drink. "What happened?"

Jack ran a hand through his hair, a gesture Rye recognised as indicating nervousness or discomfort. "What happened when I left the Agency?" he countered. "What was the official story?"

Rye shrugged. "There wasn't really one. Vague hints about breaking rules and betraying the Agency. Rumours about blackmail, embezzlement, contravening time laws. But they were just rumours, no evidence or official story behind them."

Jack took a deep breath. "I left because someone wiped my memory. Two whole years' worth."

Rye gaped. "Two years? That's monstrous! Why?"

Jack chuckled but without humour. "You tell me. No one else ever did. I just woke up, battered and bruised in my own bed. I called a few people but no one knew anything. I guess I had grown apart from them in those two years, because they all seemed surprised to hear from me, and didn't want to get involved. I panicked, figured I must have got caught up in something really bad. So I ran." He sighed. "For a long while, running was all I did."

"We heard some things, afterwards, that you were running cons in time. A couple of agents reported running into you in different times and places, and you selling them stuff they never got to see."

Jack chuckled for real that time. "Yeah, well I had to get by somehow. I was good at it too. Ironic how our training could be so easily adapted to another purpose."

"So how is it that you could do that, and then be here for quite a number of years, and yet still look almost the same as last time I saw you?"

Jack grinned. "Like I said, I age rather well. It's in the genes." He sobered. "You, on the other hand, don't look so good."

"Well, that's nice," said Rye. "But true I suppose. I'm tired. I didn't really want to be here -Tamara pushed me to do it, otherwise I would have forfeited and let the other two battle it out. And I was injured three years ago -shuttle landing went wrong, ended up hurting my back. Funny isn't it? All those dangerous missions, and it's at home in our own time, doing something normal, that gets me hurt."

They took a moment to sip their drinks.

"OK. What do we do about this situation?" asked Rye. "I want to see everyone get out of this alive and well, including you, but Kerri's not going to give up without a fight."

"That's easy," said Jack. "I'll exchange myself for the hostages, as requested."

"If you do that, Kerri will take you back to the Agency."

"Over my dead body," Jack grinned, thoroughly amused by his own private joke.

"She _will_ kill you if she has to Jack. She's ruthless, you know that. The mission was to bring you back, preferably alive, but dead will do. She wants to go down in history as the best Time Agent and the first winner of the Tournament, and she has hurt just about everyone else who looked like a threat. Thus why she was left competing against an old man and a kid."

"You're not that old."

"I feel it."

Jack put a hand on Rye's shoulder. "Trust me. Kerri won't be taking me anywhere. Now, tell me where the hostages are being kept."


	19. Chapter 19

Jack closed the door to his office, and flipped open the cover on his wrist strap. He took a deep breath and pressed a sequence of buttons. There was a regular beeping noise, then the face of Kerri Somerfield appeared, in 3D holographic detail.

"Harkness. Was starting to wonder if I'd get to play with the hostages after all."

"I wasn't carrying Advin's wrist strap around. Took us a while to find the message. You could have just sent it to me, you know."

"But I didn't, and you got the message, like I knew you would. So, what's your answer? Will I be getting the pleasure of your company?"

"I will exchange myself for the hostages, yes. When and where?" Kerri smirked and gave him the address of a warehouse in the Docks -ironically only a few streets from where the agents had arrived in Cardiff in the first place. The exchange was set for midday.

"Do not bring any of your people Harkness. You come alone, or they will pay."

"What about Advin?" Jack asked.

"What about him? He can rot in your cells for all I care," she sneered. "We gave him an opportunity and he failed to use it. Not my problem now."

"We can make it a two for two exchange. Myself and Advin in exchange for Rhiannon and Rhys."

"No, the two for one deal stands. You, in exchange for both of them. If I don't get you, then neither of them will be freed. But you can bring the kid along if you want."

"Tomorrow, midday, then."

They both reached for their wrist straps and the hologram disappeared. Jack walked around his desk and collapsed into his chair. A moment later, a shadow appeared at the office door and then a quiet knock.

"You can come in, Ianto," said Jack. Ianto opened the door.

"I've received a text from Johnny. He's reported Rhiannon missing."

"The police won't get very far before we get this sorted out."

"No, I know," said Ianto. "But they'll no doubt want to question me and be otherwise troublesome. The other day, Swanson said if we needed anything, to call her. I was thinking I might take her up on that offer."

"Good idea." Jack nodded his approval. Ianto headed back out and pulled out his mobile. He looked around, then decided to head up to the tourist office to make the call. He would happily have used the archives as another option for a quiet place, but the phone signal wasn't great down there.

He sat down on the stool behind the counter and dialled Swanson's direct line.

"Detective Swanson speaking." Ianto took a moment to wonder if she was always at the station so late.

"Detective, it's Ianto Jones, Torchwood."

"Jones, decided to take me up on my offer so soon?"

"In a manner of speaking. Listen, I know missing persons isn't your area, but a woman has just been reported missing. Torchwood are already handling it, and we need your lot to stay clear."

"You don't need my help for that Jones. I can transfer you to the head of the squad now and they'll quit it on your word. They'll hate you for it, but they'll do it, you know that."

"It's not quite that simple. I need them to pretend to be investigating, but not actually be."

Swanson was silent for a minute. "Maybe you should tell me what's going on."

Ianto sighed. "It's that Kerri woman you warned me about."

"The American?"

"Yeah. She's taken my sister hostage."

"Oh my god. Then we should be organising police negotiators and.."

"Detective, please. I have already told you, Torchwood is handling it."

"Look Jones, whatever it is that Torchwood specialises in, I'm certain it's not hostage situations!"

"Regardless, this is very much a Torchwood case. We have already received their demands and arranged a time and place to meet them. This time tomorrow, we will have the hostages back, safe and sound."

"Hostages? They've got more than just your sister?"

Ianto cursed inwardly. "They took Gwen's husband too."

"And you still don't think a trained negotiator is a good idea?" Swanson was outraged.

"No," he replied calmly.

Swanson let out an exasperated breath. Ianto knew she was cursing the arrogance of the not-so-secret organisation.

"So what _did _you call me for, Jones?"

"We need the missing persons squad to leave it alone -but to keep up a facade of investigation for my brother-in-law."

There was a brief pause. "I see," said the detective, understanding in her voice. "We can't exactly tell the family that she's been kidnapped because her brother's part of a secret special operations group."

Ianto let out a breath in relief. "Exactly."

"Alright," she said grudgingly. "I'll pass the message on. They can continue to interview friends and other family but otherwise cease investigation."

"Thank you, Detective."

"Goodbye, Jones."

Ianto hung up, and wandered back down to the hub. As the cog door rolled shut behind him, Jack emerged from his office. Gwen and Owen were sitting on the couch, whilst Tosh had pulled her chair over beside the coffee table. Jack clapped his hands.

"Ianto, we have more blankets and pillows and things around here, don't we?"

"Yes sir, in the second storeroom on level-"

"Can you grab some for the girls please?" Jack looked at the rest of the team. "Everyone is getting some sleep tonight. You two ok with sharing a cell?"

Gwen and Tosh looked at him doubtfully.

"The cells on level 3 are clean and that whole level has been empty for some time," said Ianto. "And you can leave the cell door open. You'll have a bench each."

"Alright," sighed Tosh, while Gwen dipped her head in concession. Ianto led them down towards the storeroom. Jack looked back at Owen.

"Gonna tell me to get some shut eye too, Captain?"

"Go play your video games or something. Take your mind off things."

Owen snorted. "'_Video_' games? You really are an old man."

Jack ignored him. "You're also on alert tonight. Anything other than weevils, come get me & Ianto."

"Aye aye, Captain."

Jack went down to his bunker. A few minutes later, Ianto joined him. Jack rolled onto his side to face the other man as he climbed into bed. Ianto's brow was furrowed in worry.

"You ok?"

"Seems odd to be curling up in bed, knowing Rhi is out there, probably scared and not knowing what's going on."

"Rhys is with her. And he knows a bit about Torchwood, which he'll probably fill her in about."

"Oh god. I'm not sure that's a good thing."

Jack chuckled lightly. "Don't worry, we'll get them back. I promise."

Ianto nodded, the worry still evident in his face. After a minute Jack sighed, and pulled him close.

"If you don't stop worrying long enough to fall asleep, I'll have Owen sedate you."

Ianto took a deep breath and made a conscious effort to relax. He snuggled further into Jack's arms, trying to find the secure feeling that usually gave him. To Jack's relief, he fell asleep a few minutes later.

* * *

It was just before midday, and Jack stood outside the designated warehouse. He looked over at Advin, and tugged on the handcuffs behind the young agent's back.

"Come on," he said gruffly. "Let's get this over with."

He kept Advin half a step in front of him as they approached the oversized warehouse door, and pushed it open. It was dark compared to the brightly overcast day outside, and they paused a moment to let their eyes adjust.

"In the middle, if you please," called Kerri. The men moved forward again and Jack spotted her, standing in the open space in the middle of the room. She had a sonic blaster pointed at them. They stopped some feet from her.

"Wait a moment, thank you," she said primly, and pressed some buttons on her wrist strap. "You really didn't bring any back up with you. Or weapons. I'm surprised Harkness. Do you think you can best me alone and unarmed?"

"Maybe I don't intend to beat you," said Jack evenly. "I want those innocent hostages free, and I'll do what I have to to make sure that happens."

"You always were such a do-gooder," Kerri sneered. She turned her attention to Advin. "What are you just standing there for? I know you can get out of those."

Advin shrugged and stepped away from Jack, then got out of his handcuffs within seconds. He threw them on the floor at Jack's feet.

"Thanks for the free bed and food," he grinned cheekily. "It's been a pleasure. Now, since it seems I've already lost, I suppose I'll be heading home."

"You're giving up that easily?" asked Kerri in surprise.

He shrugged again. "I'm already in the top 3 agents, and you'll be old when I'm just hitting my prime. Suppose I can consider this a practice run."

Kerri growled menacingly at the insult about her age. "Get out of here brat. Tell them the new queen of the Time Agency is on her way."

Advin reached for his wrist strap and disappeared a moment later in a flash of blue-white light.

Kerri grinned evilly at Jack. "And now I finally have you."

"So you do, though I still don't know why you would go to all this trouble to get me." Jack looked at her searchingly. "You could've sent me a message when you first got here, and I'd have invited you in for a chat. Why go to all this bother?"

"Well that wouldn't be as much fun, would it? Besides, the mission required bringing you back, beaten and broken. And I don't mean in the physical sense."

Jack laughed. "Well you haven't succeeded there then."

Kerri snorted. "You can't lie to me Harkness. I can see the tiredness in your eyes. We've been keeping you on alert round the clock, and I know it's taken it's toll. How long since you last got enough sleep?"

Jack nearly snorted. The tiredness in his eyes? Yeah, the tiredness of 150 years of life -not the tiredness of the last three weeks. In fact, he had been getting enough sleep -for him. Not as much as he usually did, sure. But as much as he needed.

Kerri took his lack of response as confirmation. She grinned delightedly, then motioned with her blaster. "Move over there. There's one last thing I want to do before I take you back and claim my title."

Jack looked over to find a large metal cage. Actually, it was a double cage, one inside another. Kerri made him enter the first and lock it behind him with a large padlock. Then the same with the inner cage, locking the padlock again.

"Throw the keys out here," she ordered, and he obeyed. They clinked onto the ground at her feet. She pocketed them, then turned to her wrist strap. A holographic Rye appeared.

"Lee. I have Harkness."

Rye nodded. "Good," he said flatly. "I should release the hostages then?"

"No, we're not releasing them. I want you to put them in range of your holophone, so we can see them. Then kill them."

Rye's mouth dropped open.

"Kerri, no!" Jack yelled. Kerri ignored him.

"But.. we don't need them anymore. You said you have Harkness," protested Rye.

"Yes, and what better way to break his spirit than to make him watch helplessly as the people he came to save, die anyway." Kerri smirked evilly.

"Kerri, you can't! Look, I'll go with you, you can do anything you want with me, but you gotta let them go! They're innocent civilians!" cried Jack. Again, his pleas appeared to fall on deaf ears.

"I can't do that, Kerri," said Rye. He looked worn, defeated. "I can't kill innocent people."

"Fine," she snapped. "I'll do it myself." The hologram disappeared and she turned back to a horrified Jack. "Be a sweetie and wait for me here?" She laughed at her own joke and teleported out.

"Ad-vin!" Jack yelled as loudly as he could. "Advin! Get in here!"

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" came the distant reply. There was a banging noise, then a back door at the far end of the space groaned open, and Advin came hurrying across the floor. "Sorry, the door was stuck. Don't think it's been opened in years."

"I don't care, get me out of here now, she's gone to kill the hostages."

"Oh god. Where's the keys?" Advin looked around wildly.

"She's got them, forget that. Just break the padlock with your blaster."

"Oh, right." Jack wondered how Advin had managed to do so well in the tournament if this was how he worked under pressure. Advin got the first door open and walked in, ready to blast the second padlock.

"Don't bother with that, just hold out your arm so I can reach," said Jack. He got one hand on Advin's wrist strap. "Let's go."

* * *

**A/N: A bit shorter than recent chapters but a deliciously good place to leave it, no? Muahaha.. not much to go now!**


	20. Chapter 20

There was a flash of blue-white light, and Kerri stood in the kitchen, sonic blaster still in hand. It was a small house, just outside the suburban area of Cardiff, and it had been Kerri & Rye's base of operations for the last month. It had two bedrooms, but was otherwise very open-plan: the kitchen was separated from the lounge and dining areas only by the kitchen counter.

Rhys was sitting close beside Rhiannon on the couch, doing his best to comfort and protect the terrified woman despite the fact that his hands and feet were tied, just like hers. At least their hands were tied in front of them.

Ryson was standing directly in front of them.

"Move out of the way, Lee," Kerri ordered. "This is my operation and we're doing it my way. And that means, these two have to die." Rhiannon whimpered again and Rhys shushed her.

"They'll come, love, they'll rescue us," he assured her quietly.

Kerri snorted. "I don't think so," she laughed. "They're already too late." She stepped out from behind the kitchen counter. "I said move, Lee."

"No," he replied quietly. "This is wrong. This is murder. This is not what the Time Agency stands for."

"This is no more than what Harkness deserves!" she snarled. "If you don't move, I will just shoot you first." She raised her weapon, pointing it straight at his chest. Rye hesitated, then stepped back. He glanced apologetically at Rhys and Rhiannon, then turned away.

"No!" There was a cry from behind Kerri and she spun round to face the newcomer. Gwen stood in the hall doorway, gun trained on Kerri.

"Shit," muttered another voice. There was the sound of movement around them as Owen appeared on the far side of the kitchen; Tosh and Ianto came through the back door. They all had their guns at the ready, pointed at Kerri.

"Ianto!" cried Rhiannon in relief.

He waved a hand to shush her. "Quiet," he ordered, inwardly cringing at how cold he sounded. But it was necessary. He couldn't afford to be distracted.

A second later there was another blue-white flash and Jack and Advin appeared in the kitchen. Kerri gaped at Advin, then turned accusingly to Rye.

"You betrayed me," she hissed. "Both of you!" She raised her blaster to shoot Rye when a gunshot rang out, and she fell with a shriek. Owen was on her in seconds, but nobody else moved. He kicked her blaster away and checked the wound.

"Nice shot Teaboy. Flesh wound to the thigh, no major veins or arteries. She'll live even without my care."

Ianto lowered his gun, his face a stony mask. Jack looked at him with pride, while Rhiannon gaped. But Ianto was still watching Kerri and didn't see either of them.

"Get off me!" Kerri struggled to get away from Owen and dragged herself backwards until she met the wall. She sagged against it in pain. Jack walked out from the kitchen area to stand in front of her, observing her closely.

"There is still an unanswered question here," he said, to the room in general. "I know about the Tournament, I know why it is you three that are here. I know what happened when I left the Agency. But that still doesn't answer why I was chosen to be the goal of this mission." He looked around at Advin and Rye. "Anyone who researched what I'm doing here properly would know I'm no threat to time or the Agency. So whoever chose me as the final test would have known the truth?"

Advin and Rye nodded. Jack turned back to Kerri and crouched down in front of her. She glared back at him.

"This is personal for you, where it's not for them," he said, motioning vaguely at the other Time Agents. "So I think you know why I was chosen. Why was it so important to get me? Why was it so important to break my spirit?"

She spat at him. "Because you hurt _her_!"

Jack's brow furrowed in confusion. "Her?"

Off to the side, realisation dawned on Rye's face. "Eva."

"Eva Somerfield? Your sister?" asked Jack. "What about her?"

It was Rye that answered again. "You dated her. In the time that.. before you left." He obviously wasn't sure how much to say, and Jack was grateful for his consideration. He stood up and stepped back from Kerri.

"OK, so I was dating your sister, and.. what? We broke up?" He frowned. "Don't tell me she got you this worked up because I broke up with her?"

"You didn't just break up with her! You betrayed her! She was going to be head of the Agency until you ruined it! Now she's in hell because of you!"

Rye coughed quietly. "Eva was imprisoned for corruption and murder. It was a closed trial, details were scarce, but she was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Agency's cells. A few months before you left, I think. Which is probably why the rumours would've assumed you were guilty of similar things."

Well. Everything certainly made a lot more sense all of a sudden. Jack walked it through mentally: he'd been dating Eva, whom he did remember vaguely as an ambitious woman. He must have found out that she was committing crimes in order to work her way to the top. And he'd outed her. And then-

"It was you! You wiped my memory!"

Kerri laughed bitterly. "Yeah. And had a bit of fun beating you up while I was at it. And if you hadn't run away so fast, I would have done more. No one deserves the hell my sister is now living in, and I can't have you living happily while she suffers. But it's ok, because I got here in the end. And now you'll die."

Before anyone could react Kerri had pulled a small gun from inside her jacket and shot Jack in the head. He fell instantly and Rhiannon screamed. Rye and Owen leapt on Kerri, disarming her and pinning her down. Gwen approached with plastic ties in hand. Tosh started untying Rhy's hands.

Ianto went to Jack's body, lifting his head into his lap as he'd done so many times before. He gently caressed the older man's forehead, and hoped, as he did every time, that this one wouldn't be permanent either.

"Ianto?" came the hesitant voice of his sister. He looked up at her, having momentarily forgotten that she & Rhys were there. He glanced over at the others, who had finished securing Kerri. Her hands were tied tightly behind her back, her feet were tied and she was glaring at the floor. The rest were all looking at Jack sombrely.

"Rye, Advin. Get the hostages out of here, please," he said quietly. They nodded and helped finish untying Rhys and Rhiannon's bonds, then helped them to stand. Advin told Rhys to place his hand on the leather wrist strap, and looked over at Rye.

"You locked onto mine?"

Rye nodded. "Yeah, I'm locked on. Where you go, we'll go. Rhiannon, if you'll put your hand here, and hold on to me."

Rhiannon was scared. She knew by now that this man was no longer her kidnapper, but the only person in the room she actually trusted was her brother, and she didn't want to be away from him. Even if he wasn't behaving anything like the brother she knew.

Ianto saw her hesitation. "Rhi, please. I will be there as soon as I can. Please let them take you to safety." He was relieved to see her nod, and Rye put an arm around her to steady her.

"Right, here we go," said Advin. The four disappeared in the now-familiar blue-white outlines. Ianto returned his attention to the body in his arms, and barely registered Advin and Rye returning a minute later.

"Come on, Jack. Don't make me wait," he whispered. "You know I hate it when you make me wait."

The time agents watched him with concern. Rye looked at the rest of the Torchwood team, who were standing in a loose group around Jack and Ianto.

"I'm so sorry for this. If I'd realised what this was truly about sooner.."

"Forget it, mate," said Owen.

"Uh, should we perhaps take the body back for you then?" asked Advin. "Better than having to ride in the car with it."

"There won't be a body soon," said Gwen. "Jack will be back in a minute."

Advin raised an eyebrow. Rye wasn't sure what to say to that either. Clearly Jack had made a big impression, if they weren't able to accept his death, but sooner or later they'd have to realise...

Jack revived with a loud gasp, and both standing time agents took an involuntary step back. Ianto soothed his captain and calmed him down, and after a moment he was relaxing in Ianto's arms again. Ianto placed a quick kiss on his forehead, then started to help him sit up.

"Come on. Work to do."

Jack groaned in annoyance but sat up all the same. He took in the wide-eyed stares of the three time agents, and chuckled. He turned to Rye.

"You were asking why it is that I look the same as I did when I left the Agency? Well, now you know."

"You're.. not human?" asked Advin.

"I am absolutely human," he corrected. "I just can't die."

"Well, not permanently," amended Ianto.

"But you do look older," said Rye. "Just not as old as you should."

Jack nodded. "I'm aging slowly. But it's taken 140-odd years of it for you to think I look three or four years older."

The two men's jaws dropped in unison. The Torchwood team made a mental note -Jack was notoriously reticent when it came to revealing details about himself, and this was a tidbit that would probably never be repeated.

"How?" asked Rye.

Jack shook his head. "A long story, a long time ago, and I don't really understand it myself." He stood up, and looked over to where Kerri was sitting. "What do we do with her?"

"We'll take her back with us," said Rye. "She was already suspected of interfering with other contestants, this will be the final straw. She -and whoever was working with her -will have to answer for what they've done."

"No!" Kerri was aghast. "You can't lock me up down there! I won't go! I won't!" She struggled uselessly against her bonds.

"What are you going to do about it?" mocked Advin.

Kerri paused in her struggles. She looked around the room, and smiled unnervingly.

"This," she said simply. "Goodbye." Then her eyes rolled back in her head, and she slumped down. Owen swore and knelt beside her, checking her vitals.

"What just happened?" asked Tosh in confusion.

"She's dead," Owen confirmed.

"I think I know," said Advin. He leaned the body forward to show the hands that were tied behind her back. He pointed out a tiny dot on her wrist to Owen. "One of the same poison needles I use. She kept them in the lining of her sleeve." He paused a moment, then looked over at Jack. "So that's how you survived! It wasn't Torchwood's amazing medical facilities, was it?"

Jack chuckled. "No. The look on your face though.." He laughed again and Advin grinned with him.

"What about you then?" Rye asked Owen. "Are you immortal too? Is it a normal Torchwood thing, to have immortal staff?"

"Er, no," said Owen. "I'm definitely not immortal."

Jack interrupted before that conversation could go any further. "Listen, Ryson, Advin, I need you to promise not to tell anyone about my.. ability."

"What, really?" asked Advin. "I think it's brilliant!"

Jack smiled at that but sobered a moment later. "It certainly has it's upside. But there's some pretty major downsides too. There has already been occasions when people... took advantage."

Rye could read his old friend better than Advin could, and figured it out first. "Torture? Or experiments?"

"Both, at different times."

A look of horror crossed Advin's face as he realised. He nodded.

"I swear then. No one shall hear it from me."

"You know I won't be mentioning it," said Rye solemnly.

Jack grinned. "Well then. Thank you. If you'd like, you're welcome to come back to the hub and have dinner with us before you go back?"

To the relief of the other Torchwood employees, Rye shook his head. "Thank you, but I think I'd like to go home. It's been a while." Advin looked slightly disappointed, but moved to take hold of Kerri's body readily enough.

"Goodbye Jack. I might see you again in a few thousand years, eh?" Rye smiled.

"Perhaps," he replied lightly. "Goodbye Rye, Advin."

"Bye Jack." The younger time agent dipped his head. Then they both disappeared in the familiar blue-white light.

Jack looked at his team. They were tired but relieved. It was over. "Let's go home."

* * *

**A/N: One more chapter to go then the epilogue. Hope you liked it -if so, please hit review and tell me. If not, then hit review and let me know what you didn't like -I'm open to constructive criticism, really! It'll help make my future writing better, so you may be doing the world a favour, haha.**


	21. Chapter 21

It wasn't over for Ianto though: he still had a sister to deal with.

Advin had, on Ianto's earlier suggestion, taken the hostages to his own cell in the hub. They had wanted somewhere safe for them, but they also couldn't allow them to wander around -either in the hub, or outside. Nor had they wanted to be one man short when it might have really counted, so they couldn't spare someone to stay with them. Rhys wasn't too much of a problem -he knew about Torchwood and could therefore make a little sense out of the strange scenario. But Rhiannon was in entirely unknown territory, and they'd decided it would be better for her if Rhys was kept with her. And so, they both sat in Advin's cell, with it's jug of water on the small table, and blankets and pillows on one bench.

It was about an hour and a half later when the team got back, and Owen headed down to the cells first to give them a once-over. He checked them both but Rye had been telling the truth -they had been treated well until the last minute. Then Gwen went down to fetch her husband and apologised profusely to Rhiannon but said she needed to wait here until Ianto could come collect her. The newlyweds hurried out leaving Rhiannon alone.

Ten minutes later, Ianto hurried down the stairs to the second-lowest level of the vaults. As he entered the room, he spotted his sister sitting on the bench facing him, and her face lit up with relief when she saw him. He smiled and headed over.

"Ianto." Jack's voice called out behind him. He paused and turned in the entranceway to wait for his boss. Jack came in and leaned in close to speak privately. Rhiannon stared at the man she'd thought was dead.

"Look, I was thinking.. I know you've been having problems because of work clashing with your family's expectations.." Ianto opened his mouth to protest but Jack shushed him. "Hear me out. I was just going to say, maybe it's better this way. Like with Gwen and Rhys. It's up to you. If you say your sister can be trusted, I'll take your word for it."

Ianto was surprised. He hadn't even considered this. "You mean.. not retcon her? Let her know about Torchwood?"

Jack nodded. "If I have your word that she won't speak about it. I know it will make life a whole lot easier for you. On that side of things at least."

Ianto wasn't sure it was a good idea, but he was pleasantly surprised and grateful for the offer. "Thank you," he murmured.

Jack squeezed his shoulder in a quick hug, then stepped back. "She's waiting for you," he smiled. "I'll be in my office." He turned and headed back to the main hub. Ianto watched him go, then quickly closed the distance to the cell and hit the release button. Rhiannon launched herself out of the cell and into her brother's arms. "Oh thank god you're ok, I was so worried! What the hell is going on, Ianto!"

He held a finger to his lips and she fell silent. "Let's go somewhere where we can talk, then I'll answer all your questions." She nodded, and followed him out of vaults. She gazed about in wonder as they crossed the main hub, but he kept a grip on her arm and kept her moving. Thankfully Myfanwy was nowhere to be seen. He took her up to the tourist office, and Rhiannon stared at it from the secret door.

"This.. this is the tourist information centre. Where you work."

Ianto nodded. "That's right. Sort of." He motioned towards the only stool behind the counter. "Probably best if you sit, Rhi."

She took his advice and moved behind the counter to sit down. Ianto closed the secret door and went into the storeroom to make them both a cup of tea -he didn't want to go back into the hub for his coffee machine right now, and tea was probably better to soothe Rhi's nerves anyway.

"Ianto?" asked Rhi when he returned. "Didn't I see your Captain shot in the head?"

Ianto frowned. "How did you know he was our Captain?"

"Rhys told me stuff."

Oh, of course. "Well, then you saw wrong -it only grazed him, knocked him out for a few minutes. He's fine."

"You looked pretty worried."

Ianto looked sharply at his sister. She always had been able to tell when he was interested in a girl, and it looked like the pattern was continuing. "Of course I was worried. He'd been shot at."

"But it was you who held him while the others took care of that American woman."

Ianto was frustrated by the slowly leading questions. "Rhi, what are you getting at?"

"Do you.. I think you've got a thing for your boss. Have you gone bender Ianto?"

He blushed. Nobody had put it quite that way to his face before. The rest of the team had just accepted it without the need spell it out, with the exception of Owen's occasional sarcastic comments.

Of course, it was entirely typical of Rhiannon to be focussing on something as banal as her brother's romantic prospects, when she had just been rescued from a two-day hostage situation involving secret agents from the future with teleportation and other advanced technologies at their fingertips.

Thankfully they were interrupted by the secret door opening and Rhys and Gwen entered.

"Rhiannon! You're ok, yeah?" asked Gwen.

"Yeah, fine. No thanks to my brother who didn't even ask." Ianto rolled his eyes -Owen had already told him she was fine. "You're Rhys' wife, Gwen, yeah?"

"'_Rhys' wife_'," chuckled Rhys. "I like that."

"Well, we're off home. Take care," smiled Gwen. They headed out the front door. When Ianto looked back at his sister, she had stopped smiling.

"Ianto, I.. who are you? You're still my brother right?"

He reached over and put a comforting hand on her arm. "Of course I am."

"It's just.. Rhys said he'd seen you fight guys with guns before, and I didn't really believe him but then today, you just shot Kerri, or whoever she was, and.. it was like, it wasn't you, it was someone else, and.. it scared me, Ianto. How can all this have been going on and I didn't know any of it?"

Ianto sighed. "It's the nature of the job, Rhi. We can't tell anyone."

"So all those times when you couldn't meet up with me. All those weekends you were working.."

He nodded. "I wasn't helping Cardiff's tourist population."

Rhiannon looked troubled. "This is just, so, crazy. I can't get my head around it."

Ianto picked up her mug. "You're tea's gone cold -I'll get you a fresh one." This time with an added ingredient, he thought, dissolving the pill in the hot water.

A few minutes later, Rhiannon was asleep, her arms and head on the counter, and snoring lightly. Ianto pulled his mobile out of his pocket.

"Swanson? One last favour. Our 'missing person' needs a lift home."

* * *

Ianto wandered into Jack's office, a steaming hot coffee in each hand. He placed them on the desk.

"You ok?"

Jack leaned back, brow furrowed. "Yeah."

"You want to talk about it?"

Jack was silent, and Ianto moved around the desk to lean against it. Eventually, Jack cleared his throat.

"I just can't help wondering how much else from.. maybe I shouldn't be here. It's dangerous just to know me, even without Torchwood."

"Jack, you couldn't have known. Your memory had been wiped, there was no way you could have seen this coming. And in some ways.."

"What? Don't tell me there's a positive side to this."

Ianto shrugged. "If she hadn't wiped your memory, you wouldn't have left the agency. Which means you wouldn't have ended up here." Wouldn't have known me.

Jack seemed to hear the unspoken thought, and pulled Ianto onto his lap. "I've told you before, I wouldn't change that for the world." His hand reached for the back of Ianto's neck and he pulled the younger man in for a slow kiss.

Until Ianto's mobile rang. "Sorry," Ianto said, sitting back and pulling it out of his pocket. He looked at the caller ID. "I better take this." He answered it.

"Johnny, any news? ..Really, that's wonderful! Is she ok? ..oh thank God. ...Yes, of course, should I come over tonight? OK, tomorrow. See you then." He hung up.

"The brilliant Cardiff police force located and safely returned your hapless sister to her home?"

"Apparently so. She appears to have amnesia, so she hasn't been able to help with the investigation, but they're thinking that she must have hit her head and gotten disoriented and lost overnight."

Jack studied him. "You didn't want her to know?"

"She has a family, and she worries enough about them -and me -as it is. If she knew it would only be another thing to worry about all the time. I couldn't put her through that." Ianto sighed.

There was a pause as Jack tightened his arms around the younger man.

"Jack, something else, about.. all this."

"Mmm?"

"You have a lot of 'past'."

"Are you _try_ing to make me feel old?" Jack mock-grumbled. "Because it's working."

"Seriously, you can't just run or hide from your past all the time. You're going to have a lot of past, and if you try to avoid it.. well, you'll end up not having a present, let alone a future."

Jack sighed. "I know."


	22. Chapter 22

It was an uncommonly sunny morning as Gwen arrived at the hub. Everything looked and felt like it was going to be a wonderful day. Or maybe that was just the result of getting a good night's sleep several days in a row. There were the usual suspects fishing off the boardwalks and the pier, and she waved to a few of the regulars, before letting herself into the tourist office.

A minute later the cog door rolled aside, lights flashing, and she stepped into the hub.

"Morning Tosh!" she called cheerily. Ianto walked past on his way to Jack's office and pressed a fresh mug of coffee into her hands. "Oh you are a lifesaver, Ianto. Anything for breakfast?"

"There's a bagel on your desk."

"Oh, you are too perfect."

"So I've been told," he smirked.

She followed him up the stairs. Tosh and Owen were sitting at their respective workstations; Owen was playing games again. Jack met Ianto at the door of his office and happily accepted his coffee.

"Team meeting in ten minutes! Be in the boardroom waiting," he called.

Ten minutes later, they all sat around the boardroom table, three still sipping at their first caffeine-fix for the day. Jack strode in, all business.

"Right. Good to see everyone on time for once. There's a couple of things I want to discuss, so let's get into it. Tosh, how's the Rift Activity monitor?"

"Perfect," she replied. "Since the Agents left, everything has been dead accurate. Actually, I think some of the changes I made to the equations when we were trying to figure out what was wrong must-"

Owen coughed. "The short version, Tosh?"

She blushed. "It's better than ever."

Jack nodded with a pleased grin. "Glad to hear it. Owen, how are the weevils doing?"

"They're just about back to their normal beastie selves. I've hooked up new remedy bottles in all the locations, to replace the empty ones and I'll probably do a third round to-"

Ianto coughed. "The short version, Owen?" he deadpanned. Tosh and Gwen tried to stifle their laughter.

Owen glared at him. "The whole population should be in prime health by next week."

"Just what I wanted to hear." Jack turned a bit more serious. "Gwen, Ianto, how are the family members doing?"

"Rhys is fine," said Gwen promptly. "Well, by fine, I mean, he was terrified it might happen again and swore off meeting new people, ever. But I convinced him it was a one-off and, you know, made out he was a hero for looking after Rhiannon like he did, and that went down rather well. So he's fine now."

"Rhi doesn't remember anything," said Ianto. "The retcon has held well. The police convinced her she must have just hit her head whilst out shopping and had a concussion, which explains the amnesia. She didn't suffer physically so she's been pretty okay with it all. Though I think she plans to get the doctor to run some tests and check there's nothing wrong with her."

Jack nodded again. "Good."

"All's well that ends well, hey?" said Owen.

"Well actually, there's something else we need to discuss," said Jack with a frown. "There was a certain incident where two of my employees directly disobeyed orders and nearly got themselves killed in the process."

Gwen and Owen were both suddenly hit by a wave of dread. They'd both nearly forgotten that little detail -and were subconsciously hoping Jack had too.

"I'm so sorry, Jack," Gwen began. "I didn't mean-"

"I know you meant well, Gwen, but that's not the point!" Jack was exasperated. "I give orders for good reasons. I have more experience in just about any scenario you can think of. I have known and worked in this place since decades before your birth, and yet you still don't trust my word when I said we could defend it. Why?"

She looked shocked at his outburst, and a little scared. "I couldn't bear the thought of not knowing. I had to see for myself that everything was okay." She shrugged, looking down. "It's not as though I could sleep, anyway," she mumbled.

Jack sighed, and looked to the other side of the table. "Anything you'd like to say in your defence?"

Owen shrugged. "It was stupid to let her talk me into it. It was stupid not to leave it to you. It was stupid to let sick weevils roam Cardiff unchecked while I came back here for a stupid reason."

Ianto raised an eyebrow at him. "That's.. not a defence."

"I can be an arse, but I can bloody well admit when I'm wrong, Teaboy." Owen looked back at Jack. "I'm a prat. This is common knowledge."

"Yeah, but you're supposed to be working on that," said Jack. "Right, punishment."

"Punishment?" Gwen squeaked. Realisation suddenly dawned on Ianto's face, then settled into a smug grin.

"You heard," Jack continued. "Now normally, I would simply suspend you both for something like this. But I don't think that's appropriate in this case. For starters, if I gave you a week off Gwen, Rhys would be overjoyed, you'd sleep in all day, and it would basically be like a holiday. And secondly, I don't want to see what the dead man's like when he's been bored and alone for seven days straight."

"Oi!" protested Owen.

"So, you're not getting a week off. Tosh and Ianto are."

There was a moment of stunned surprise from the whole team.

"Really?" asked Ianto.

"A whole week?" asked Tosh incredulously.

"Seven days in a row, paid leave," confirmed Jack.

"Rhiannon won't know what hit her," Ianto grinned. "I promised her I'd try for a week_end _off."

"You're not going to spend the whole week at your sister's though, are you?" asked Jack with a slight frown.

"I suppose I could come home at night," said Ianto teasingly.

"That's enough you two," groaned Owen. "You can sort out your rendezvous details later."

"Jack," said Tosh hesitantly. "Would it be ok.. Do you think maybe I could, well, visit my parents?"

If the other two men in the room thought anything was strange about that question, they didn't show it. But Gwen was perplexed.

"Toshiko, you've been here seven years. Of course you can," frowned Jack. That reply only made Gwen even more curious.

Tosh blushed. "No, I meant more, what if something happens, and you need me, and I'm on the other side of the world?"

Jack relaxed into a smile. "We'll be fine, really. Go do something for yourself for once."

Tosh practically jumped out of her seat. "I need to book my flights. And call my mother. And pack!" She hurried away into the hub.

"What was that about?" asked Gwen.

"Now," said Jack, totally ignoring the question. "There's more to the punishment."

Ianto's smug grin returned.

"Alright, out with it," sighed Gwen.

"I had Ianto make up a list of all the worst occasional maintenance tasks that need doing, and you two will spend every spare moment making sure they get done. Plus any of Ianto's regular maintenance work while he's away."

Owen had noticed Ianto's look. "You knew."

He shrugged. "I knew I was making a list. I didn't know what it was for. Therefore, I was completely honest -they really are the worst jobs that need doing -the ones I've been avoiding for longer than I should."

"Like what?" asked Gwen in concern.

"Cleaning the muck out of the lowest cell level from the flooding last spring. Cleaning the mould off the bottom of the water tower. Giving Myfanwy's nest a complete clean out -I've only been removing the soiled litter, but really it needs to be completely replaced every so often, and it's past due. Replacing the insect and rodent baits and traps in the archive levels, along with any expired consumers of said goods. And more along those lines. You get the idea."

"Ugh," Gwen shuddered. "I'm taking out shares in rubber gloves and disinfectant."

"The hub has a large supply already -I'll show you the storeroom and run through the list with you later," said Ianto pleasantly.

Gwen and Owen groaned at the thought and left the room, united in their misery.

"That has to be one of the best punishments ever," said Ianto, leaning back in his chair. Jack stood and stepped over to him, leaning against the boardroom table with his own legs between Ianto's knees.

"What, giving away the maintenance jobs? I often do that."

"No, giving Tosh and I a week off. That was brilliant, sir," Ianto smiled.

"I am pretty good," smirked Jack.

Ianto rolled his eyes. "Remind me to stop inflating your ego."

"You weren't serious about spending the whole week with your sister, were you?" asked Jack.

"Why, does the Captain have some time off coming up too?"

"Maybe," Jack grinned suggestively.

"Well then, I might be able to arrange a day or two at home. And on one of those days when he does have to work, he might consider coming back to a home-cooked meal at the end of the day?"

Jack's eyes lit up. "Could that be _every _day?"

Ianto laughed. "I haven't been home to cook dinner more than once or twice a week since I started here, Jack. My repertoire has been severely depleted -I think I'd have trouble reaching a whole week's meals."

"Alright, so just several nights then?" Jack asked hopefully.

"Alright," he smiled. An alarm sounded in the main hub. Ianto sighed.

"Rift activity!" came Toshiko's distant call.

Jack sighed as well, but pulled Ianto up and wound an arm around his waist, and together they headed back to work.

* * *

**_The end! Thankyou to everyone who has been reading this so faithfully -you may have been quiet but the statistics show there's quite a number of you out there and you kept coming back, so it can't be all bad news. Hope you liked it!_**


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